“It took seven days to create the world; it only took one to disrupt its balance,” says the tagline for an award-winning animation by a team of students in France. “Au 8ème Jour,” which translates to “On the 8th Day” in French, uses CG, or computer-generated animation techniques to create a three-dimensional world in a stop-motion style.

A multitude of vibrant animals and landscapes appear sewn from fabric in the film’s otherworldly realm, each tethered to a single piece of yarn that connects it to a kind of central energy force—a vibrant, tightly-wrapped skein in the sky. But when mysteriously dark tendrils of black fiber begin to leech into this idyllic world, families and herds must run for their lives.

What’s causing the change—and what the black threads eventually cause—seems beyond imagining. Yet the fantastical situation is not so distant from something familiar right here at home.

The United Nations now concedes that its Paris Climate Agreement goal—limiting global temperature rise, due to greenhouse gas emissions, to 1.5 degrees Celsius above “pre-industrial” levels—is not possible. The science-backed goal was established in 2015 to limit the harms of rising temperatures around the world. Though set in an imaginary world, “Au 8ème Jour” is a beautiful, stark, and poignant reminder of what’s at stake right here on Earth.

“Au 8ème Jour” was created by a team of 5th-year students at Piktura in Roubaix, France, a school focused on animation, illustration, and video game design. The work of Agathe Sénéchal, Flavie Carin, Elise Debruyne, Alicia Massez, and Théo Duhautois, the film has been selected for more than 250 awards. And it’s won 60, including Best Animated Short at both the Bend Film Festival and Santa Barbara International Film Festival last year.

See more from Piktura on Vimeo, and head to the end of this article to glimpse the meticulous behind-the-scenes digital process.

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The arboreal designs featured in TASCHEN’s new book aren’t your dad’s Home Depot box variety. Uniquely stunning, all 62 structures in Modern Tree Houses respond to the surrounding environment, whether a tiny, winterized pod for escaping the snow or a split-level playground complete with climbing ropes and nests. Built by architects and amateurs alike, each dwelling is varied in material, layout, purpose, and aesthetic, although all thrive because of their proximity to nature’s beauty.

“Modern tree houses are proof that happiness doesn’t have to be built big—just built right,” author Florian Siebeck says, presenting an array of spaces from luxurious escapes to children’s hideouts. Pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop.

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The shortlist for this year’s Close-Up Photographer of the Year competition has arrived. After deliberating for a total of 20 hours on Zoom, 22 judges evaluated a record-breaking 12,557 photographs and consolidated its most promising contenders. Capturing the diversity of wildlife and nature landscapes across 11 unique categories, each photo highlights stunning close-up, micro, and macro perspectives.

CUPOTY’s Top 100 photos are yet to be selected from this collection in January 2026. Find the entire shortlist on the contest’s website, and in the meantime, follow Instagram for updates. Can’t get enough of these extreme close-ups? Immerse yourself in images from past cycles of the contest.

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As it turns out, humans aren’t the only animals with a flair for drama. The 2025 Comedy Wildlife Awards (previously) presents another collection of angsty, surprised, and utterly terrified creatures around the globe. This year’s competition highlights several characters that would be right at home in a neighborhood yoga studio, from the elegant orangutan doing her own interpretation of tree pose to a fox crashing onto its neck after an all too relatable misstep.

Find all the winning images on the awards’ website.

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From record-breaking droughts and catastrophic flash floods to contaminated pipelines and increasingly thirsty AI farms, water is at the nexus of the climate crisis. The life-giving liquid is both scarce and too abundant, causing half the global population to lack sustained access to fresh drinking water, while much of the world is subject to hotter, wetter weather that subsumes communities with extreme conditions.

For designer, author, and activist Julia Watson, pinpointing myriad approaches to these all-consuming problems is one of the most critical and urgent tasks today. Her new book Lo-TEK Water, published by Taschen, highlights various Indigenous technologies and aquatic systems that could be utilized in adapting to a climate-changed world.

There are the two-meter-deep canals of Xochimilco, Mexico, which delineate 55,000 square meters of raised fields called chinampas. While built by the Aztecs to clean the water and irrigate crops, this system actually originated with the Nahua people. Similar are the floating islands of Intha Myanmar, which weave together roots, leaves, sediment, and other materials to create hydroponic beds.

Although Watson is keen to draw on ancient practices that could be more widely utilized today, she also highlights more modern approaches, like Pakistan’s Yasmeen Lari, an architect who’s responsible for devising the world’s largest program for creating shelters and cookware that leave no carbon footprint.

At 558 pages, Lo—TEK Water positions “water as an intelligent force that can shape resilient cities and landscapes. Aquatic infrastructure is reframed—from extractive and industrial into regenerative and evolving—designed to sustain life for generations,” a statement says.

Watson is a key voice in the broader Lo—TEK movement, and this new book is a companion to her previous volume focused on sustainable technologies. Find your copy on Bookshop.

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From a record-breaking 60,636 submissions, the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition (previously) has selected 100 images that capture the breadth of life on Earth. The 61st annual contest, helmed by Natural History Museum, London, features a diverse array of habitats, from a brown hyena skulking through an abandoned Namibian diamond mine to an orb weaver spider illuminated by the kaleidoscopic glow of headlights. Together, the photos present a timely consideration of our impact on the environment, along with an astounding glimpse at the planet’s many gems.

As usual, you can find a fraction of the winning images below, but all are available for viewing on the museum’s website or in person through July 12, 2026. Photographers can also submit their works for the 2026 competition through December 4.

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As the days grow shorter and colder in the Northern Hemisphere, billions of birds are migrating south. Their routes, habitats, food sources, and behavior are incredibly varied. From distinctive plumage to sleeping habits to intimate connections, the world of avians is as about as expansive and awe-inspiring as it gets.

More than 11,000 species have been formally documented around the world, but there may be upwards of 20,000 depending on how they’re recorded. And through the eyes of fine art photographers, we’re afforded a stunning look into this unique world. A new book, Aviary: The Bird in Contemporary Photography, celebrates feathers and flight.

Published by Thames & Hudson, Aviary features the work of more than 50 international photographers. Colossal readers may recognize images by Joseph McGlennon, Søren Solkær, Tim Flach, Leila Jeffreys, and many more, all of whom approach their subjects with an eye for atmosphere and individual personalities.

Christine Ward’s “Connection,” for example, is an eminently relatable moment between two ravens. In Jeffreys’ portrait of an owl, we can imagine being given the side-eye, as if it knows more than it’s letting on, and the dangling songbird in Kimberly Witham’s “Still Life with Goldfinch, Bleeding Heart and Tulip” evokes a distinct sense of humor.

More than simply a catalogue of different species, the volume highlights vibrant and artistic portraits, landscapes, and candid moments that glimpse “our complex relationship with birds, questioning how we observe them and respond to their presence—and vice versa,” the publisher says.

Find your copy in the Colossal Shop.

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Such minuscule details of life may be out of sight, but they’re certainly not out of existence. Back for its 2025 installment, Nikon’s Small World Photomicrography Competition (previously) highlights the complexities of our world beyond the naked eye.

From dozens of algae cells floating in a single droplet water to the inner workings of a dedifferentiated liver cell, this year’s collection of winning images and honorable mentions capture the microscopic diversity of life forms. Flip through the contest’s online gallery for more, and add some science to your feed on Instagram.

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In Romain Veillon’s most recent body of work, Secret Gardens, the enigmatic allure of abandoned greenhouses takes center stage. Traveling to derelict sites to immortalize forgotten corners of the world, the French photographer invites viewers into spaces where humans are decentered.

The boundaries between interior and exterior are a key element in Veillon’s approach to abandoned growing houses, where he emphasizes their convergence. “It is ironic to see that, on the contrary, nature felt imprisoned there and sought to break free from its captor, unleashing its unstoppable force,” the photographer shares in a series statement. “Now, we admire vegetation that has become one with the bars of its cage.”

Veillon’s photographs are formidable, documenting the power nature holds to eventually reclaim spaces no longer governed by human intervention. While echoes of the presence of man persist in each image—through shattered stained glass window panes, rusting pipes, and piles of unused pots—the commanding force of rollicking vegetation is a clear reminder that in the end, nature endures beyond us.

Find more on Veillon’s website, and keep up with his practice on Instagram. (via designboom)

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The result of more than a year of planning and about a week of in-person scouting along the coast of Sinaloa, Mexico, a precisely timed portrait of a Magnificent frigatebird flying in front of a total solar eclipse was captured by Canadian photographer Liron Gertsman. Winner of the 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year competition, Gertsman’s image demonstrates the effort and time that goes into documenting some of the world’s most remarkable birds.

This year’s contest saw more than 33,000 entries from photographers all over the world, including three youth categories. With conservation at the heart of its mission, the competition also donated more than £5,000 to Birds on the Brink, a charity that funds grassroots efforts to benefit avians.

Categories like Urban Birds, Best Portrait, and Birds in the Environment showcase a wide range of the feathered creatures’ behaviors and habitats. Steffen Foerster’s portrayal of a bloody-faced Southern giant petrel, for example, gets up-close-and-personal with the tube-nosed seabird after it’s enjoyed a hearty meal. And Luca Lorenz focuses on the beady eye of a tough Alpine chough in the middle of a snowstorm in the Swiss Alps. Benoit Henrion peeks back at a trio of Western barn owls that have staked out niches in a church in France, and Baiju Patil captures a group of Barn swallows darting above vibrant marigolds in India.

Explore the winners’ gallery on the contest’s website, where you can also purchase a book of this year’s top photos, published by Princeton University Press. The 2026 competition is also now open for entries.

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