Born in Shandong, China in 1973, Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist known for taking photographs of himself, painted in order to blend in with the background.He graduated from the Sculpture Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Liu belongs to the generation that came of age in the early 1990s, when China emerged from the rubble of the Cultural Revolution and was beginning to enjoy rapid economic growth and relative political stability.
The Seven Wonders of the Natural World may have been named too quickly. Wonders like The Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls are certainly big, and anyone who sees them will surely be impressed—but sheer size isn’t enough to truly leave a person in awe. There are other places in this world, though, that are far stranger. Places that seem almost alien, as if they could only exist on a planet that evolved separately from our own. These are places that scientists have had to struggle just to understand how they ever could have been formed. Places that will truly make you wonder—not just because they’re beautiful, but because they seem to follow scientific laws that don’t exist anywhere else on earth.
This wonder of the ancient World was located in the Greek Island of Rhodes. It was a giant statue of bronze, constructed in the III century BC as the representation of the god Helios. Young professionals from Greece, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom have been inspired to take up the ambitious "Colossus of Rhodes Project," aiming to revive one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Their primary objective, according to their statement, is to "put back on the map the island of Rhodes beginning with the restoration of its historical value," while they also wish "to bring out to light the hundreds of archaeological findings forgotten in the storerooms of the island."
It's been a year since the dramatic rescue of the 12 members of the junior football team and their coach from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. The rescue put a spotlight on spelunking and the adventures to be had underground. Caves have an almost primal appeal—they hold the secrets to our past and are mysterious in and of themselves. They are home to mini-ecosystems that are otherwise impossible above ground and are the last vestige of exploration.
