Earlier this year, Belgian film-maker and artist Vincent Bal stumbled upon an uncanny resemblance to an elephant in the shadow of his tea cup. This gave him the idea for Shadowology, a series of doodles that interact with the shadows of simple, everyday objects: a banknote, some ice cubes and a flower, for example, can turn into a church, a woman and a hippy. “I draw a few lines and I get my image. It’s really the shadows that inspire me”, Bal says. Here: “Stonedog”. (Photo by Vincent Bal/The Guardian)

Indian men sleep in the shadow of an overflowing cloth container of hay, to be used as animal fodder, on a truck on a hot summer day in Ajmer in the western state of Rajasthan on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Shaukat Ahmed/AFP Photo)

A monk prays during the annual Fire Festival held at the Konjoin Temple on June 28, 2006 in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Every year around 1000 visitors come to participate and to wish for good luck at the 1200 year old Temple. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

The shadow of a partial eclipse is cast on to the cheek of a student on the roof of the Jana Dlugosza Academy in Czestochowa, Poland March 20, 2015. (Photo by Grzegorz Skowronek/Reuters/Agencja Gazeta)

A baby is baptised during a mass baptism ceremony on Epiphany day in Tbilisi, January 19, 2015. About 1000 children were baptised by the Georgian Orthodox church during the 38th mass baptism ceremony at the country's main cathedral Holy Trinity. (Photo by David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)

Allison Callender and Kent Willis, members of Mekanix Gym, a total wellness center, take a cold plunge in ice after a workout at the gym's Shadow Sanctuary facility during hot weather in Houston, Texas, U.S., July 19, 2023. (Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters)