The official name for this tiny speck of land – the size of 12 football pitches – is Hashima, but few call it that. In English, its most commonly used name means “Battleship Island” and, viewed from a certain angle offshore, its silhouette is uncannily dreadnought in nature. It was a mining facility until 1974, when it was abandoned to the elements, before partially reopening as a tourist attraction in 2009. Photo: A decades-old television. (Photo by Mark C. O'Flaherty)

Born in 1958 in Kiev, Ukraine, artist Mark Khaisman studied Art and Architecture at the Moscow Architectural Institute in Russia. Now living in Philadelphia, USA, Khaisman uses rolls of brown packaging tape to create incredible works of art. Mark characterizes his work as ‘pictorial illusions formed by light and shadow’. The three key elements are: translucent packing tape, clear acrylic or film panels, and light. By superimposing layers of packaging tape Mark can ‘play on degrees of opacity that produces transparencies highlighted by the color, shading, and embossment’.

Vøringfossen is the 83rd highest waterfall in Norway on the basis of total fall. It lies at the top of Måbødalen in the municipality of Eidfjord, in Hordaland, not far from Highway 7, which connects Oslo with Bergen. It has a total drop of 182 meters, and a major drop of 163 meters. It is perhaps the most famous in the country and a major tourist attraction on the way down from Hardangervidda to Hardangerfjord. The name Vøringfossen (Old Norse Vyrðingr) is derived from the verb vyrða (English: esteem, revere). The last element fossen, the finite form of foss (waterfall), is a later addition.

A model presents a creation during the Biofashion show, which features designs made from plants, recycled and natural materials, in Cali, Colombia, November 19, 2016. BioFashion is an environmental initiative that seeks to create awareness about the preservation and management of natural resources where new designers develop dresses made with living plants, flowers and organic elements. (Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters)

Wrestler Kairi Hojo jumps at her opponent Mieko satomura during their Stardom female professional wrestling show at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, July 26, 2015. Professional women's wrestling in Japan means body slams, sweat, and garish costumes. But Japanese rules on hierarchy also come into play, with a culture of deference to veteran fighters. The brutal reality of the ring is masked by a strong fantasy element that feeds its popularity with fans, most of them men. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Karl Bang's paintings are unique because he combines totally different styles of painting within the same format. It is very difficult to design a balanced composition with realistic elements that are juxtaposed with flat colors and patterns. The faces of his subjects are painted realistically in the Western tradition with subtle gradations of color; while, his figures and costumes vignette into abstracted shapes, lines, flat colors and patterns that reflect Karl's background in China. It is as though there are different visual languages being spoken within his paintings.

Artist Robert Mickelson is an expert sculptor whose medium of choice happens to be glass. There's something so pure and serene about glass. Perhaps it's the material's transparency coupled with its fragility. Whatever it may be, Mickelson knows how to accentuate the element's most appealing qualities. Each of his life-like sculptural pieces exude realism with a refined quality.

Scaffolding holding a remnant of the Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle, is seen on a rooftop of an abandoned building in the town of Pripyat on January 25, 2006 near Chernobyl, Ukraine. The town of Pripyat, deserted since the 1986 catastrophe, once housed 30,000 people, the majority of being workers from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Days after the catastrophe the inhabitants were relocated to other locations in the Soviet Union. The town of Pripyat has remained uninhabited since. Prypyat and the surrounding area will not be safe for human habitation for several centuries. Scientists estimate that the most dangerous radioactive elements will take up to 900 years to decay sufficiently to render the area safe.