“Hi! My name is Seiji Mamiya. I hope my cat pictures would make you all happy!”

After school and civil service, Thomas Mangold went off to study Visual Communications in Dortmund where he still lives. During these studies, he had the opportunity for an internship at the advertising agency Grey Dusseldorf and also began to receive invites to publish his photographic series in magazines. Around this time, a new professor at the college arranged a one week intensive seminar in Strata 3D.

Warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple display their Kung Fu skills at the Songshan Mountain near the temple April 12, 2005 in Dengfeng, Henan Province, China. Shaolin Temple, built in AD 495 in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420–581) and located in the Songshan Mountain area, is the birthplace of Shaolin Kung Fu. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

“A Hadaka Matsuri (“Naked Festival”) is a type of Japanese festival, or matsuri, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth (called fundoshi), sometimes with a short happi coat, and rarely completely naked. Whatever the clothing, it is considered to be above vulgar, or everyday, undergarments, and on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is held in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Japanese men wear loincloths as they splash about in freezing cold water during Saidaiji Naked Festival, at Saidaiji Temple on February 18, 2012 in Okayama, Japan. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

Two De Brazza's monkeys stand together at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park on June 21, 2011 in Hythe, England. Port Lympne has welcomed a host of new arrivals this year with wildebeest, colobus monkeys, gorillas and rhinos all adding to the current stock. Port Lympne and Howletts Wild Animal parks were set up by the late John Aspinall to protect and breed rare and endangered species and, where possible, return them to safe areas in the wild. The Aspinall Foundation which runs the parks also manages two gorilla rescue and rehabilitation projects in the central African countries of Gabon and Congo where they have successfully reintroduced over 50 gorillas to the wild. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

“Christoph’s early career in Paris encompassed fashion editorial and advertising work as well as some photography for the music industry. After spending 5 years in Paris, Christoph moved to New York where his passion for visual storytelling found purchase in the film industry”. – Tim Mitchell