Do tears of joy look the same as ones of woe—or ones from chopping onions? In “The Topography of Tears,” the Los Angeles-based photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher explores the physical terrain of one hundred tears emitted during a range of emotional states and physical reactions. Using a Zeiss microscope with an attached digital camera, she captures the composition of tears enclosed in glass slides, magnified between 10x and 40x. “There are many factors that determine the look of each tear image, including the viscosity of the tear, the chemistry of the weeper, the settings of the microscope, and the way I process the images afterwards,” she says.

California-based glass artist Loren Stump specializes in a form of glasswork called murrine, where rods of glass are melted together and then sliced to reveal elaborate patterns and forms. While the murrina process appeared in the Mideast some 4,000 years ago, Stump has perfected his own technique over the past 35 years to the point where he can now layer entire portraits and paintings in glass before slicing them to see the final results. His most complex piece to date is a detailed interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks, which involved hundreds of glass components that were melted into a final piece.

Chicago-based illustrator Alex Solis created fat versions of famous pop culture characters in this funny illustration series entitled “Famous Chunkies”.

Chicago-based illustrator Alex Solis created fat versions of famous pop culture characters in this funny illustration series entitled “Famous Chunkies”.

With the humpback calving season drawing to a close, here’s a look at some of Rita Kluge’s distinctive marine photos from the south Pacific. The Sydney-based photographer fell in love with whales after witnessing southern rights from the New South Wales coastline as they travelled to and from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic. She has since been to Tonga, where humpbacks breed and calf in winter months, to photograph them in the water. (Photo by Rita Kluge/The Guardian)

Joshua Hoffine, based in Kansas City, Mo., and a self-proclaimed “Horror Photographer”, is interested in the psychology of fear. In his project “After Dark, My Sweet”, Hoffine’s surreal and staged images render these fears visible with the “visual grammar of a child”. Through elaborate sets, costumes, makeup and fog machines, Hoffine’s children act out these terrifying scenes in front of his camera. Here: “Basement”. (Photo by Joshua Hoffine/The Washington Post)

A member of the Community Police of the FUSDEG (United Front for the Security and Development of the State of Guerrero) poses with a weapon during events to mark the first anniversary of the force's operations in Ocotito, January 23, 2015. Based on the traditional indigenous justice system, the Community Police is made up of volunteers from different communities of Guerrero, and was created in response to the spate of violence in several locations in the state. (Photo by Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)

Beneath the Swedish capital lies an intricate web of underground train lines. More than 90 of the 100 stations in the 110km tunnel system, sometimes referred to as “the world’s longest art gallery”, have been decorated with paintings, installations, mosaics and sculptures by 150 artists since the 1950s. After spending a couple of weeks exploring arctic Norway and Sweden, London-based travel photographer Conor MacNeill headed underground to capture images of the metro stations. Here: A rainbow arcs over a girl on the platform of Stadion station. (Photo by Conor MacNeill/The Observer)