A foreign passenger wearing a protective suit poses as they prepare for their flight at Manila's International Airport, Philippines, Monday, January 18, 2021. Coronavirus infections in the Philippines have surged past 500,000 in a new bleak milestone with the government facing criticisms for failing to immediately launch a vaccination program amid a global scramble for COVID-19 vaccines. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

Miss USA R'Bonney Gabriel, back to camera, is hugged by other contestants after being crowned Miss Universe at the 71st Miss Universe pageant, in New Orleans on Saturday, January 14, 2023. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

An employee brings a photo of late Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida for the installation of her lying in state, to allow the public to pay their respects, at Rome's Capitoline Hill on January 18, 2023. Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, one of the last icons of the Golden Age of Hollywood, has died aged 95, culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said on Twitter on January 16. (Photo by Tiziana Fabi/AFP Photo)

New York City is populated with millions of people that each serve as an essential piece of the city's eclectic pie. The Big Apple's offering of unique and diverse individuals is arguably unmatched. We always hear about what a melting pot this immense metropolis is with its endless supply of quirky characters and the ongoing photo series known as Humans of New York proves it.

Allyson Anne Lamb is a Brooklyn based fine artist primarily working in photography. Her work uses the body to explore the complexity of human emotions and the continuous invisible transformations we experience, revealing them as monstrosities or fantastical beings. Through the assembling of body parts, bright colors and fictional spaces that exist in Lamb's magical realm where sexual anxiety, female identity and altered sensorial perceptions are explored, Lamb invites us to participate in an altered state of consciousness. We step in to quaint fragmented realities where we are welcomed to engage in lucid dreaming populated by colorful mutations.

A person dressed as cartoon character Homer Simpson sits on an NYPD security barricade in Times Square as preparations are made for New Years Eve in New York December 29, 2014. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

A Japanese girl participates in a calligraphy contest to the celebrate the New Year in Tokyo January 5, 2015. Over 3,000 calligraphers, having qualified in country wide competitions throughout Japan, took part in the annual contest to celebrate the new year. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)