London gang leader Jean-Claude asked photographer Adam Patterson to take his picture for an underground music studio. It turned into a photo project that Patterson believes helped Jean-Claude leave gang life behind. “I gained a good friend in Jean-Claude," Patterson said.

Claire Aho worked as a photographer during an age when the advertising and photography world was dominated by men, as depicted in the popular television show, “Man Men.” “In the 1950s I never thought I did pioneering work. I just worked hard,” she says. “The expression ‘pioneer’ was affixed to me later.”

Sweetwater, Texas is home to the self-proclaimed “world’s largest” rattlesnake roundup. Some 40,000 people turn out every year in early March to hunt down rattlesnakes and then skin them, eat them, show them off, and learn from them. The nature of the event is what attracted David Kasnic to it in the first place.

North Korea opened its border to photographer Martin Sasse for the sixth time since 1999 in October. With chaperones, permissions and regulations in place, he was able to explore modern life and the art culture in Pyongyang, the capital city.

For about seven years photographer Chad A. Stevens has been working on a documentary on mountaintop removal, a coal excavation technique used primarily in the Appalachia mining region. As his project progressed, Stevens realized how complicated the situation is, especially for the residents.

Bert Stern had the most in-demand iconic beauties of the 1950s and ’60s in front of his camera, including Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. Possibly most memorably, he captured Marilyn Monroe six weeks before she died for a series later known as “The Last Sitting.”

Located in the southwest corner of Spain's Canary Islands is an environmentalist utopia called El Hierro. The island is now completely renewable energy self-sufficient. Benjamin Bechet traveled to El Hierro to document the breathtaking landscape of the island, the people and the technology that helps keep the island green.

John Comino-James first made the journey from Oxfordshire, England, to Cuba in 2002 to meet the man his daughter would eventually marry. It was his first visit to the Caribbean island, but something about it touched him on an emotional level and he’s been going back ever since.