Aerial photo tour across countries and continents with a French photographer Yan Arthus-Bertrand [21 photos total]

New Zealand photographer, Amos Chapple, made three visits to the Islamic Republic of Iran between December 2011 and January 2013. Chapple "was amazed by the difference in western perceptions of the country and what I saw on the ground…" He goes on to say that every traveller he met inside Iran had the same sense of surprise. The government continues its anti-western campaign, but Chapple explains what was once a popular sentiment has long since faded with Iranians. Chapple describes this as a "constant embarrassment for ordinary Iranians. In the time I spent there, I never received anything but goodwill and decency, which stands in clear contrast to my experience in other middle eastern countries." A sampling of Chapple's images are featured in this post. [25 photos total]

Aerial photo tour across countries and continents with a French photographer Yan Arthus-Bertrand [32 photos total]

The Big Picture posted some of photographer Matt Black's images of the Mixteca in July of 2011. The pictures were part of an ongoing long-term documentary project on the region and its people. I included a link to Black's Kickstarter campaign, and Big Picture readers responded in force, helping fund another trip to the area. The pictures below are the result of that trip, and it seems only right to share them with the readers who helped make them possible. This time, Black focused on farmers dealing with the area's severe soil erosion. He writes, "Southern Mexico's Mixteca region is one of the most heavily eroded landscapes on earth: up to five meters of topsoil have been lost. In the town of Santiago Mitlatongo, soil loss triggered a geological phenomenon called "slumping." Like a slow-motion landslide, the town is sliding downhill at the rate of one meter per day, destroying homes and livelihoods as houses and farmland slip into the valley below." Interested readers can join Black in a web conference hosted by Orion Magazine tomorrow. [16 photos total]

This month, we present a view of Afghanistan seen from the perspective of a single photographer, Martin Middlebrook. He has spent much of the last three years documenting the real lives of ordinary people across Afghanistan, for a project called 'Faces of Hope'. In 2010 this project exhibited at the Kabul International Conference, and in 2011 it exhibited at the British Museum in London to support their installation on the cultural history of this extraordinary country. Middlebrook writes "'Faces of Hope' is now being turned into a book, an uplifting repositioning of humanity, putting the goodness in people back to the forefront. Afghanistan is a misunderstood and misrepresented country, a place and people devastated by 32 years of continual conflict. And at the heart of this destruction are the souls of 34 million ordinary people trying to survive in this land of 'blood and dust'." This entry is part of an ongoing series here on Afghanistan. All photographs and caption text by Martin Middlebrook. [28 photos total]

Jakob Wagner was born 1985 in Herdecke, Germany. In summer 2008, he successfully completed his three-year apprenticeship as a photographer. He has since been living in Duesseldorf, where he has mainly been working as a freelance photographer, image editor and photo assistent. His work has taken him to many different countries around the world. When Jakob Wagner is not at work by assignment, he devotes much of his time and passion to his personal photography projects, which will culminate in future books and exhibitions. His photographs are available in signed and limited editions.
We think they look amazing and are very pleased Jakob allowed us to post them on Pixtale.

We’d like to thank Jakob for sharing his photos. Visit his website for more of his work and if you like the photographer’s work please give a comment or a like to show your appreciation. [32 photos total]

Oscypek is a smoked cheese made of salted sheep’s milk, made exclusively in the Tatra Mountains region of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The first mention of cheese production in the Tatra Mountains dates back to the 15th century - in a document from 1416. The flavor of the cheese depends very much on herbs, grass (eaten by the sheep) and the time of year the cheese is made. Some people claim that it tastes best in the spring, because the milk is full of fat. Everything is made by hand by The Gorale (literally, highlanders), a group of indigenous people found along the southern Poland region of Podhale, in the Tatra Mountains. There is also a significant population of Gorale in Chicago, Illinois. The Gorals spend weeks outside their home, living in a small wooden house, while looking after their herd. It is akin to a nomadic life from May to September, and a difficult life as well. They start early in the morning and milk the sheep three times a day. A friend introduced photographer Michal Korta to Baca (the sheep’s master) Wojciech (chief of the working group of Gorals). He spent 3 days documenting the process of producing the traditional Oscypek. [28 photos total]

Its wonderful to see that you are giving a amateur photographers a chance to show they work on such a wonderful community! What a talent you got here!
My name is Marko Pavlov and I got infected by the photograph bug one year ago, and I really have found myself in this wonderful hobby. I am still looking for my own style, so thats why in my albums I include everything from landscape, street, animal to portrait shots. Hope that you guys will like my shots,anyway, i will keep practicing and improve my self!

We’d like to thank Marko for sharing his photos. Visit his website for more of her work and if you like the photographer’s work please give a comment or a like to show your appreciation. [25 photos total]

I'm Fred Murphy and I live in New York City and shoot mostly landscapes and nature, cityscapes and architecture in the city and on travels to Vermont and other locales. My work has received awards in juried exhibitions at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, and was recently featured in the book Capture My Vermont. In 2010 I had a solo show at New York's Indian Road Cafe. I started out with a Pentax K-1000 30 years ago and still use a Pentax K-x. My day job is in information technology and the performing arts [30 photos total]

Time to travel to the microscopic world of macro photography by the lens of the Slovakian Ondrej Pakan with this impressive shots of small insects full of color and live. In this selection most of the shots appear to take place while of after raining covering the animals with water drops. [43 photos total]