“The most serious health problem in the U.S. today is obesity.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? But that pronouncement about obesity’s primacy in the hierarchy of national health problems is not new. Rather, it’s the opening line to a remarkable article published 60 years ago in LIFE magazine. This photographs made by Martha Holmes to illustrate that March 1954 article, titled “The Plague of Overweight.” Photo: Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949. (Photo by Martha Holmes/Time & Life Pictures)

Jakob Wagner was born 1985 in Herdecke, Germany. In summer 2008, he successfully completed his three-year apprenticeship as a photographer. He has since been living in Duesseldorf, where he has mainly been working as a freelance photographer, image editor and photo assistant. His work has taken him to many different countries around the world. When Jakob Wagner is not at work by assignment, he devotes much of his time and passion to his personal photography projects, which will culminate in future books and exhibitions. His photographs are available in signed and limited editions.

A cenote is a natural phenomenon, a sinkhole in the Earth’s surface. The Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has an estimated 7,000 cenotes because it is primarily made up of porous limestone. For millions of years, rainfall slowly ate away at the limestone and a huge system of underground caves and caverns was formed. Many filled with water from rain or from the underground water table. When the roof of a water filled cave collapses, a cenote is born. The water found in a cenote may be fresh water, salt water, or both. Structurally it may be completely open, like a lake, almost completely closed with just a small opening at the top, or somewhere in between.

Miners carry a goats head for burial in the crater as part of an annual offering ceremony on the Ijen volcano on December 17, 2013 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The ritual is performed by the sulfur miners of Mount Ijen who slaughter a goat and then bury the head in the crater of mount Ijenn. The sacrifice is performed to ward off potential disasters for the next year. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

Andy Kehoe recently returned to New York for his third solo show with Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Entitled Luminous Reverie, this show explores the idea of experiencing a lucid moment while drifting along in a daydream. We enjoyed the works, which continued the new direction that he premiered during a show in Los Angeles last year (covered). Again, Kehoe explores the technique of painting layers upon layers of resin and creating a natural 3-D visual element for the viewers to enjoy. This show will be up until June 15th, so stop by and check it out if you’re in NYC.

A student uses a ruler to measure the distance between forks before a formal dinner at The International Butler Academy China on September 16, 2014 in Chengdu, China. Over the last several years, there has been a surge in demand among China's wealthy for Western-trained butlers, with many academies seeing large portions of their graduating classes hired by Chinese families or companies. (Photo by Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)

René Maltête was a French photographer and poet. His pictures were based on the element of surprise and incongruity, often having a humorous and even philosophical side to them. At the start of his career, he often had to resort to manual labor as an addition to his to his profession in order to pay the bills. However, René's talent of seeing and being able to capture in time humorous moment of mundane, day-to-day life payed off in the end. Over the years, his works were published in a number of magazines in addition to numerous exhibitions that were held worldwide to popularize his work. (Photo by René Maltête)

Hirotoshi Itoh graduated from Tokyo National Fine Arts University in 1982 and later went into his family business as a stonemason. He spent several years working with metal before turning his attention to stones. He utilizes stones found in a river bank near his home, and he creates sculptures that juxtapose the original shape and hardness of the material with surprising humor and texture. You can find more of his work on his Deviant Art page.