The winners of the Historic Photographer of the Year Awards 2020 from triphistoric.com celebrate the places and cultural sites around the world that offer a window to the history that exists all around us. This year, restricted by Covid, photographers were called on to scour their photographic archive to share their imagery of those places that dominate our past. Here: The Brighton Palace Pier. (Photo by Michael Marsh/Historic Photographer of the Year 2020)

Kevin Russ, a photographer & image moderator for iStockphoto, grew up in Arroyo Grande, California. In 2003, he made the move to Portland, planning to study at Multnomah Bible College. Finding the workload to be minimal, Kevin invested in a camera, filling his free time and finding himself instantly smitten with the craft. A year and a half later, photography had evolved into his full-time job. However, after 4 years of consistent portrait work, Kevin became burnt out and took a step back from photography altogether. Two years later, he picked up the camera again and now spends the majority of his time on the road, exploring & photographing the rustic landscapes & wildlife he encounters.

French artist Gilbert Legrand’s new series takes everyday objects like corkscrews, tape measures, and more and turns them into hilariously cute characters that almost make you forget their original purpose. Skillfully using each object’s natural shape, he crafts a character full of whimsy and personality. Each is painted to detail, with even the tiniest of characters bearing an expression which leaves no doubt as to their feelings about the situation. It truly takes a talented hand and imagination to turn paint brushes and zippers into humorous characters with surprisingly huge personalities.

Lovely is the correct work to describe this beautiful paintings series by David Renshaw from “Ted n’ Doris – A Northern Romance”. “Deep down I always knew what I wanted to do for a living and in my school years I remember my father teaching me some basic elements of drawing and I dreamed of one day becoming an artist. Being only really interested in art I left school and studied Graphic Design, after which I started work at a local art gallery as a picture framer. I continued to paint alongside my job, mainly developing techniques and ideas and in 2005 decided it was time to follow my dreams and dedicate myself to painting full time. I always try to make my work feel atmospheric, and I like to pay particular attention to sky and cloud formations as I consider this element of my work to be extremely important to the mood of the finished painting, whether it be a dramatic sunset or a misty moonlit night.”

“Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec is known along with Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist period. In a 2005 auction at Christie's auction house a new record was set when “La blanchisseuse”, an early painting of a young laundress, sold for $22.4 million U.S” – Wikipedia.

Photo: Full-length portrait of French artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec wearing an overcoat, a bowler hat, and pince-nez eyeglasses while holding a cane. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Circa 1895

People don’t realize how much our exterior can affect our mood. If we make ourselves smile, we might feel a little better, yet if we frown, we soon get the irresistible urge to listen to Blues and weep over the days long gone. The same goes for our clothing. Many people, especially the elderly, tend to dress in the same old rags, without ever feeling the need to change something about their appearance. However, as Cue Qozop clearly demonstrates in his Spring – Autumn photoset, clothes can completely alter the appearance and the mood of the wearer. Elderly people dressed in young people’s clothes look much younger and happier. They look as if they are full of vigor and are about to set out on an amazing adventure.

When you first see the art works created by a Thai metalworker Ban Hun Lek, you are completely stunned by the level of detail of the metal sculptures that he creates. One of his most prominent creations is a full sized sculpture of a Hulk. The fact that this sculpture was created practically solely out of steel nuts adds to the rugged feeling of force that emanates from this creation. And if you think that this creation is amazing, you should look at his other works such as the Ganesha – the god of wisdom, knowledge and new beginnings, or the Predator. For that matter, almost every sculpture that he creates blows your mind away, making you wonder just how many hours has he put into making these amazing pieces of art. (Photo by BanHunLek)

There are many ways to interpret the creations of Yoshitoshi Kanemaki, whose works usually involve sculptures of people where two or more characters have merged into a single being. Possibly, Yoshitoshi Kanemaki is trying to express through his sculptures that everyone’s soul is multifaceted. Good emotions are mixed with the bad, love is mixed with hate, contempt with admiration. How often do you hear that a person loves someone deeply, while doing completely horrendous things, unable to see that he or she is destroying their object of love? Nevertheless, we should be thankful to the nature for all the different emotions that we are able to feel. Unlike animals, who only show simple forms of emotions, such as anger, happiness, and a few others, human soul is much deeper, allowing us to feel a full plethora of emotions. (Photo by Yoshitoshi Kanemaki)