Istanbul-based Ali Gulec is a graphic artist with a difference. His surreal illustrations are like identikit drawings aiming to prosecute the material arts. Working on the margins of what is possible with his medium, Gulec's forms, figures, and situations are remarkable for their clarity and strength of purpose, and maintain an iconographic intensity that would make any rock band bereft of an album cover salivate with admiration.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (3rd R) and wife Ri Sol Ju (4th L) enjoy an art performance given by the Chongbong Band to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on October 19, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/KCNA)

South Korean prostitutes hide their identities as they participate in a rally on September 22, 2005 in Seoul, South Korea. Prostitutes rallied against government law aimed at the s*x industry. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A Syrian rebel walks past Sham 2, a homemade armored vehicle, in Bishqatin, Syria, on December 8, 2012. From a distance it looks rather like a big rusty metal box but closer inspection reveals a homemade armored vehicle waiting to be deployed. Sham II, named after ancient Syria, is built from the chassis of a car and touted by rebels as “100 percent made in Syria”. (Photo by Herve Bar/AFP Photo)

Elementary school sumo wrestlers compete in the sumo ring during the Wanpaku sumo-wrestling tournament in Tokyo, Japan July 30, 2017. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Ukraine's Taisiia Onofriichuk performs with the clubs as she competes in the rhytmic gymnastics' individual all-around qualification during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris, on August 8, 2024. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

This image was taken purely by chance, when Fujioka happened to pass a group of schoolgirls striking a popular social media pose in Hiroshima in 2017. “I didn’t even notice the Atomic Bomb Dome (war memorial) behind them when I photographed this image – the girls probably didn’t either. The past and present of Hiroshima co-exists here, with a river running between”. (Photo by Aya Fujioka)