© Francisco Salgueiro

Batman, from the Melting Ice Pops series © Michael Massaia

Remember that sinking feeling when your lolly falls to the ground in slow-motion? I guess someone dropped theirs in the gents', inspiring the wonderful machine that is Michael Massaia to make this, his second summer series released so far this year. They are fantastic. Using a $40,000 Leica loaner, Michael Massaia's latest project entails placing ice pops on a piece of black Plexi, allowing them to melt in their own time, and photographing them using only long exposures. 

Ece, Turkey. © Bilo Hussein

Bilo Hussein is one of the delightful and impressive students from NY's School of Visual Arts I met during the class thesis review this year. Here are a few images from her heartfelt series "Never Home."

"When I was growing up in Saudi Arabia, my Sudanese parents often reminded me that the country we lived in was not our home. It was only years later that I understood the implications of this - that it might become impossible for me to 'belong' to any culture and that there was no place I could comfortably call home."

"Never Home is an ongoing project driven by the sense of segregation in religion, culture and gender that I experienced as a child in Saudi Arabia. I also express my continuing wish to find a place where I can fit in regardless of belief."



Sakura, Japan

"As I went on to arrange and shoot the portraits, I directed my subjects to think about their formative experience in their culture of origin - on the good and the bad. I found myself almost subconsciously placing them next to a window, for reasons beyond its value as a light source. I came to the realization that they were really me sitting by the window as a child, locked up in our house in Jeddah wondering if I were ever to leave this place if would find another land I could honestly call home."



Ailin, Ecuador

Of course, she found much in common with the women she chose to photograph, all transplants from elsewhere, domestic and abroad. In post-production, Bilo layers images of New York that are significant to her and textures that relate to the person's original home. Simply lovely.

  

Biarritz © Pej Behdarvand

LA-based photographer Pej Behdarvand's assignment for Car & Driver magazine, to record a BMW's final moments, ("Our Bimmer Gets Gutted") progressed into his brilliant series "Deathbed." Some of the absolute best work I see is made as "personal work" when the photographer takes their idea and executes it under their own steam. Successful projects like this can then boost a photographer's assignment work and gain them important exposure both inside and outside of the photography world.

Primitivo Iporre Serrano, caretaker of a pelota (ball game) court, Potosi, from the series "Salar" © Daniel Hofer

A few fun images from Bolivia, and Dortmund, by Berlin-based photographer Daniel Hofer, "Born in 1982 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Great parents."

"Salar" refers to: "'Salar de Uyuni' a 10.000 square kms large salt lake, which is dried out for most of the year. It lies at an altitude of 3653 Meters in the Bolivian Andes and contains, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, one of the largest amounts of lithium in the world. Critics say that it's not possible to unify the plans for the lithium extraction, tourism and the protection of the environment in the Salar. At the moment, tourism is one of the most important sources of income to many people around the salt lake." Thanks Daniel!