Teenage girls at a drinking fountain in Hyde Park in Central London on August 9, 2022 after weeks with no significant rain and unprecedented high temperatures. Many parts of southern England and Wales are facing drought conditions and preparing for emergency water measures. (Photo by Sarah Lee/The Guardian)

A macaque climbs on a visitor at Phra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi, Thailand on February 25, 2024. Although the thousands of macaques living in town are a tourists' attraction, many complain that they harass residents and damage houses and businesses while deterring potential visitors. (Photo by Valeria Mongelli/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Young Russian women dance to the music of Soojin on the pedestrian of Nikolskaya street near Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, July 18, 2024. Seo Soo-jin, better known mononymously as Soojin, is a South Korean singer, dancer, and rapper, who has many fans in Russia. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

The East and West piers at Whitby in United Kingdom were not built for pleasure like many others but to provide shelter for ships from the storms and currents of the North Sea. Picture date: Thursday, March 23, 2023. (Photo by Andrew McCaren/London News Pictures)

An Indian boy sells flowers to Hindu devotees of Lord Shiva as they perform rituals after collecting water from the river Ganges during the holy month of Shravan, In Allahabad on July 22, 2019. Shravan is considered the holiest month in the Hindu calendar with many religious festivals and ceremonies. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

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.

A fisherman struggles to push a wheelbarrow full of sharks that have just been dropped off a pirogue on the beach of Songolo, the fishing district of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the Congo in November 2021. Many artisanal fishing crews on the Congolese coast specialise in shark fishing (Photo by Marco Simoncelli/Al Jazeera)

Some dozens of long-finned pilot whales lay dead on a remote beach in Iceland after they were discovered by tourists sightseeing in the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland aboard a helicopter, Thursday July 18, 2019. The whales were concentrated in one spot on the beach, many partially covered by sand. (Photo by David Schwarzhans via AP Photo)