A copy of part of the Dead Sea Scrolls is displayed at the “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times” exhibition at Discovery Times Square on December 16, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A man looks at the body of a man killed at a residential building damaged by a Russian military strike, as a journalist looks at the scene in Kharkiv, Ukraine, July 11, 2022. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Harry Sprinkle eats a meal at St. John's Bread and Life, a free meal service, on December 23, 2011 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. St. John's Bread and Life serves approximately 2,200 meals per day; the organization has existed since 1982. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Light is the sole reason why life exists. It provides us with warmth; it allows us to see; it nourishes all the living things on this planet. Many painters, especially the masters of Old Renaissance Period, have recognized the importance of light and its intimate connection with nature and life itself. In their paintings they gave tribute to light, giving the impression that their paintings had a light source hidden within them. Al Hogue, the artist who created the paintings that you see before you, has studied their techniques for many years. As time went by, light permeated not only his paintings by also his life, becoming his sole philosophy.

If you were to meet this guy in the woods, especially if it’s nighttime, you’d probably think that it’s a local troll or a yeti. However, in reality, he’s no yeti. His name is Mick Dodge, and before deciding to live in the woods, he was a marine for six years at Fort Lewis. It is hard to tell what moved him to leave the busy life of the city and start living in the Hoh Rain Forest. It could have been that he decided the leave the stressful life of the city, or maybe he simply loves the solitary life of a hermit. Another thing that is peculiar about Mick Dodge is that most of the time he walks barefoot, hence the nickname “The Barefoot Sensei”.

Some of the most powerful narratives of the past decade have been produced by a forward-thinking generation of women photojournalists as different as the places and the subjects they have covered. National Geographic's “Women of Vision” exhibit features the work of 11 photographers and is on display at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta until January 3, 2016. Here: Nujood Ali stunned the world in 2008 by obtaining a divorce at age 10 in Yemen, striking a blow against forced marriage. (Photo by Stephanie Sinclair/National Geographic)

A giant shoe is pictured outside a life-size “Barbie Dreamhouse” of Mattel's Barbie dolls in Berlin, May 15, 2013. The life-sized house, covering about 1,400 square metres offers visitors to try on Barbie's clothes in her walk-in closet, tour her living room and her kitchen. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

A Thai visitor appears to be frightened by a life-size Velociraptor model also known as Raptor at the Dinosaur Planet theme park in Bangkok, Thailand, 25 March 2016. The 500 million baht (14 million US dollars or 12 million euro) theme park opening in the Thai capital aimed to attract more than 15,000 visitors a day featuring a chance to experience more than 200 dinosaurs from various species that are brought back to life. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA)