The image of Shakespeare's Ophelia submerging herself in a river has inspired artists for centuries, from the 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to the contemporary photo studio Staudinger Franke. Their "Barrier" series features female models resting below the water's surface in a way that evokes Hamlet's tragic love interest. While Staudinger Franke typically work in advertising, this personal project shows the sensual, subtle side of their practice.
The image of Shakespeare’s Ophelia submerging herself in a river has inspired artists for centuries, from the 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to the contemporary photo studio Staudinger Franke. Their “Barrier” series features female models resting below the water’s surface in a way that evokes Hamlet’s tragic love interest. While Staudinger Franke typically work in advertising, this personal project shows the sensual, subtle side of their practice.
Daesung Lee's photo series "Futuristic Archeology" visualizes the threat climate change poses to Mongolia's traditional nomadic culture. As global warming takes its course, the country's once-lush land has become increasingly arid. According to a Mongolian government survey, hundreds of lakes and rivers have dried out. Twenty-five percent of the territory has turned into desert within the past 30 years. Mongolia's nomadic people, who comprise about 35 percent of the population, haven't fared well with these changes, as they depend on the land for their livelihood.
The haunting smoke photographs of French photographer Gilles Soudry transport us into his black and fluffy universe, where the streams of smoke take on strangely human and animal-like formations. First featured here on our blog last year, Soudry has since completed the third installment of his "Volutes" series, an ongoing study of smoke's mystifying effects as it is captured in a single moment in time.
Brazilian-photographer Vitor Schietti uses fireworks to create images of illuminated trees and dancing patterns in his series "Impermanent Sculptures." To produce the images, the artist sets off fireworks at twilight. When the light is just right, Schietti uses a long exposure camera. The effect is semi-painterly and always captivating. The method comes from the artist's interest in the moment of change or transformation, as well as the sociological question of how microscopic elements reflect the greater, macroscopic world. To this effect, the trees ablaze represent dual destruction and illumination. Though people and governments take climate change under serious consideration, we continue to destroy our shared environment. The burning tree is an all-too common phenomena in an age of extreme weather and drought, but it is also an ancient symbol shared across cultures. Captured in a photograph by Schiette, the burning tree inspires ominous feelings of both awe and doom. 
German photographer Bartholot appreciates the unexplained. Bartholot is not looking to copy a kind of reality or life; his photos celebrate artificiality and design. His digital images merge his own sense of fashion with surrealism and usually start with a single thought or mood. They have been described as a combination of sculpture and photography, also reflecting his interest in colors and textures. For his latest collaboration with the Spanish creative studio Serial Cut, he created a series of photographs of draped unmasked characters.
