Artist and photographer Carl Warner began his career in landscape and still photography, working many years in the advertising industry. Seeking new inspiration and direction one day, he happened upon a market with Portobello mushrooms that reminded him of trees from an alien world. This would become his first foodscape and the start of a new and exciting direction in his career.

Minimiam is a project of the Japanese photographer Akiko Ida and French photographer Pierre Javelle. They met studying photography at the Paris “Arts Décoratifs” art school. The project has been ongoing since 2002 and was inspired by the married couple’s profession as commercial food photographers.

French artist Julien Breton aka Kaalam started calligraphy in 2001 by copying Arabic calligraphers. Self-taught, he began to incorporate long exposure photography to create incredible light paintings around the world. All of the images in this gallery were created in-camera, meaning there is no Photoshop trickery or post-production manipulation involved in creating these works of art.

Takehiko Yagi is a rising star in Japanese photography, and his vibrant pictures of the Hindu spring festival of Holi won the Grand Prize at the fourth annual Nikkei National Geographic Photo Prize. Diving into the Colors of Holi is his first exhibition in the US, on show at Foto Care Gallery in New York until 28 September, 2016. Here: Jaipur, India, 2013, (Photo by Takehiko Yagi/The Guardian)

Manu Brabo was born in Spain in 1981. After studying Photography in The School of Arts and Crafts in Oviedo, he moved to Madrid where he started Journalism in Carlos III University while he was working as a photographer for several humble newspapers and agencies. In 2011, Manu was held captive and then released by by Libyan forces. Brabo, along with fellow AP photographers were awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. Here: a Syrian man cries while holding the body of his son, killed by the Syrian Army, near Dar El Shifa hospital in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, October 3, 2012. (Photo by Manu Brabo/AP Photo)

Jassen Todorov, 40, from San Francisco is a professor of music at San Francisco State University, but he took to helicoptering in his spare time. While he was content to keep the panoramic views he witnessed to himself, Todorov has now paired his passion for flying with photography to capture some of the United States’ undiscovered vistas. Here: Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone, Wyoming. (Photo by Jassen Todorov/Caters News)

Grand banqueting halls, opulent lobbies and vast ballrooms; you could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a collection of photographs was documenting some of Europe’s grandest hotels. However, a closer look will reveal the majestic rooms to be engulfed in swathes of dust and moss; hotels that once hosted royals and high society abandoned to the elements. This is the latest result of urban exploration photography, going beyond “no entry” signs to capture images of dilapidated buildings across Europe. IT worker Thomas Windisch, from Graz in Austria, indulged his passion for photography by traveling across the continent, visiting over 100 abandoned hotels along the way. Here: inside a hotel in Austria. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Caters News)