“My artwork shows, with the language of sculpture, the essence of matter and tries to reveal with the work, the hidden life within.”

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

A woman jumps out of a street art object in the center of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev during a warm autumn day on September 25, 2020. (Photo by Sergei Supinsky/AFP Photo)

A frontline worker reacts as she receives a dose of AstraZeneca's COVISHIELD vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign at a medical centre in New Delhi, India, February 24, 2021. (Photo by Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

A young boy dressed in traditional Tamang dress plays with pigeons as Sonam Lhosar (the new year festival) is observed in Kathmandu, Nepal on February 2, 2022. (Photo by Amit Machamasi/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Lea Meyer of Team Germany falls into the water obstacle during the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase heats on day two of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 16, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Wire Press Association)

Victoria of Bulgaria performs during the second semi-final of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands, May 20, 2021. (Photo by Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters)

A woman passes Members of historical clubs dressed in the uniform of French soldiers during ceremony of repatriation of the remains of French General Charles-Etienne Gudin de la Sablonniere, participant in the French Revolutionary wars and Napoleonic wars, to France in Moscow airport Vnukovo-3, Russia, 13 July 2021. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA/EFE)