Each of these moody, dreamlike images feels like a moment from some larger story that remains a mystery to the viewer, forcing us to become active participants in the work by filling in the blanks. Whether working with props in a studio, using only analog film photography techniques or capturing incredible images with little more than an iPhone, these photographers lure us into an alternate reality with narrative images that leave us wanting more.

Aela Labbe

Of all the gorgeous images French dancer and photographer Aela Labbe has created, perhaps the most striking are her portraits of children. “My family is another key that unlocks the world I have created through photography; my nephews, in particular, are the main protagonists of my photographs. It was thanks to them that childhood has become a recurrent and determinant theme in my work. It is based on a different vision that aims to show a darker side, and mystery, through unconventional representations of the early time of life,” she tells Feature Shoot.

Elena del Palacio

Madrid-based photographer Elena del Palacio explores the relationship between women and nature in a series of photographs placing her subjects in vulnerable places and positions.

Courtney Brooke

The specific magic that can only be found in the foggy hills and forests of New England is frozen in time within each striking image created by Western Massachusetts photographer Courtney Brooke, who is often armed with no more than an iPhone and an exceptionally keen eye for composition and mood. “I pull inspiration from photos taken in earlier dates and the rich history of my environment. I strive to create a visual moment that urges the viewer to question spirituality, the human experience and ones own connection to the universe.”

Katharina Jung

At just twenty years old, German photographer Katharina Jung infuses her portraits with a heady sense of mystery and emotion. “I would describe my style as a mix of daydreams and fairytales,” she says. “The fascinate thing in photography is the way I can deal with my feelings and the way I can convert my daydreams into images. Photography allows me to create the world I would love to live in.”

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Fairytale Photography 50 Images With A Moody Narrative Style

When a free-standing building is razed there is often little left to tell its story, but in places where structures directly abut one another there are sometimes amazing traces of not just buildings but floor plans, wall placements, staircases and even room contents.

Like architectural section drawings, remnant spaces can be extrapolated from two-dimensional clues, like material transitions, degree of weathering, surface shapes and color shifts. Occasionally, there are even three-dimensional fixtures still hanging on, like the showers, sinks and toilets in one of the pictures above.

The Unconscious Art of Demolition is a Flickr photography group that focuses on these accidental works of ghost architecture – leftover structural voids and the spaces they imply.

In the process of observing and photographing, these passers by and onlookers are turned into amateur documentarians and de facto archaeologists, discerning and (at least subconsciously) projecting patterns into ambiguous urban decay.

Some take an abstract approach, zooming in on the rich materials where parts of walls were left and other pieces ripped away. Others take a broader focus, highlighting building outlines and implied interiors. Still others capture works of street art placed within the flat landscapes one can imagine inside of these non-buildings.

Images included here are by Steven Kunstler, Merrick Brown, Daniel Lobo, Thomas Hobbs, Dave Meyer and Xenmate, but many more can be found in the aforementioned Flickr group with over 500 images and members.

Sometimes it happens by mistake: you forget to wind the film forward on an analog camera, and capture a new image on top of a previous one. These happy accidents can often have a ghostly, mysterious feel to them, leading some photographers to intentionally create double or triple exposures for the artistic effects. These 33 examples of multiple-exposure photography recall the unpredictable qualities of film, when each image was an experiment and gazing at the developed results was like opening a present.

Florian Imgrund

(images via: inthoughts.de)

German photographer Florian Imgrund just started using an analog camera in summer 2010, but his mastery of subtle and evocative double-exposure effects seem to imply decades of experience. Imgrund combines portraits of people with nature scenes for contemplative imagery.

Cameron Russell

(images via: cameron russell)

Photographer Cameron Russell uses no computer trickery to achieve these otherworldly images with a vintage feel. With a lomo camera, which has a cheap plastic body and lens that causes unusual, uncontrollable camera effects like vignetting and light leaks, Russell achieves these very interesting results.

Vivek Jena

(images via: vivek jena)

This double exposure by Vivek Jena, entitled ‘Saturday Sun’, seems like an image out of a dream. With a landscape, a frosted window and what appears to be a group of children playing, it’s hard to determine exactly what is going on here.

Maxim Trudolubov

(images via: max_trudo)

Layered shots of buildings and trees in Moscow come together into an almost monochromatic image in this unedited, multiple-exposure, cross-processed shot by photographer Maxim Trudolubov.

Oliver Morris

(images via: lullabies to paralyze)

Photographer Oliver Morris certainly has an eye for lining up multiple shots just right, for images in which his subjects – typically women – seem to blend into or grow out of nature itself.

Dan Mountford

(images vía: dan mountford)

British photography student Dan Mountford has attracted quite a bit of well-deserved attention for stunning in-camera double exposures so expertly executed, some viewers can hardly believe that they’re not Photoshopped.

Andy Bettles

(images via: feature shoot)

Working primarily in still-life photography for companies like Sephora and the New York Times Style Magazine, Andy Bettles also finds the time for beautiful double-exposure photographs like these.

Andrew de Freitas

(images via: andrew de freitas)

Cityscapes and portraits combine into atmospheric works of art in these double-exposure images by photographer Andrew de Freitas.

Fontas Nicolas

(images via: f-nikko.com)

Most photographers working with multiple exposures tend to focus on portraits for the biggest impact, but Fontas Nicolas proves with these images that urban scenery can be just as intriguing.

Julie Wang

(images via: my modern met)

Despite her age – she’s a teenager – Julie Wang creates multiple-exposure images that have caught international attention. Wang often shoots self-portraits and works with quotes and typography as well.

Charles Bergquist

(images via: charles bergquist)

The ‘Double Vision’ series by photographer Charles Bergquist uses multiple exposures to combine disparate images into striking works of art.

Pakayla Biehn

(images via: you should take care)

These aren’t just beautiful examples of double-exposure photography – they’re actually paintings. Artist Pakayla Biehn was born with strabismus, an eye condition that gave her double-vision until it was corrected. Drawing inspiration from that time, Biehn merges images from various photographers and then projects the double-image onto a blank canvas to paint it.

The world has been entranced by photographs since their invention well over a century ago. When video came along, however, that was even better. Somewhere along the way, we have learned to love both still and moving images. Now, well into the 21st century, a team of artists is combining them in a fantastically unusual way.

Photographer Jamie Beck and her partner Kevin Burg, who has a background in video and motion graphics, take beautiful photographs and turn them into something that rests comfortably between photography and video.

Their creations are called cinemagraphs: still photos with small elements of movement. They retain all of the exquisite composure of still photographs but add a surprising bit of motion that is absolutely mesmerizing.

The effect can be just the tiniest bit creepy when you aren’t expecting it: the eyes of a model moving suddenly or a reflection whizzing by in a storefront window are disconcerting at first. However, these cinemagraphs are exceptionally beautiful once you move past the initial startle reflex.

According to Beck and Burg, their work is just a little more than photographs and a bit less than video. Many of the movements are so subtle that you don’t notice them at first. The bigger movements tend to look almost like video, but it is these subtle movements that make these photos so intriguing.

Creating this movement effect is a rather painstaking process, taking from several hours to an entire day to complete for each photograph. The finished photographs are GIFs, which many of us remember as those annoying animations from the early days of the Internet. Beck and Burg’s artistry, however, have taken GIFs from a distraction to an art form.

Photographer Jamie Beck says of her work: “There’s something magical about a still photograph – a captured moment in time – that can simultaneously exist outside the fraction of a second the shutter captures.”

(all images used with permission of Jamie Beck. Thanks, Jamie!)

Would you empty your pockets for a perfect stranger? Would you let a friend go through the contents of your purse? For most of us, the things we carry with us on a daily basis hold a certain, almost talisman-like power. They become our totems, our good luck charms, our little piece of home that goes everywhere with us. Artist Francois Robert knows the power of the everyday objects we all hold so dear, and he asked regular people – friends, family and even strangers – to empty their pockets and purses and let him photograph the contents. They had no prior knowledge of his plan, no time to stuff their pockets with items they might consider flattering. The collection is called “Contents,” and it’s as personal as you can get without seeing any more of a person than one hand.

Francois Robert’s mother could be credited for planting the seed of an idea when the artist was just 13. She found young Francois rifling through her friend’s handbag looking for money. Rather than humiliating or punishing the lad, she left him with a piece of wisdom that would stick with him through the next five decades: “A woman’s purse is more private than her naked body.”

Taking this nugget to heart, Francois Robert asked 120 people to show him what they were carrying on the spot, with no advance warning about the subject of the photo shoot. The artist did allow participants to take out anything they did not wish to have photographed, but surprisingly few opted to pick and choose what they would display in their photos. Only one prospective subject declined to participate in the project altogether.

Mr. Robert is not the first artist to undertake a project like this. Others have photographed the contents of pockets and bags before. (Even Mr. Robert himself has been engaged in photographing pocket contents since 1978.) But it is the little differences that make “Contents” so compelling. The photos never reveal the person behind each set of treasures; only one of their hands. The hand is usually (but not always) enough to tell you whether the owner is a man or a woman, a child or an adult. But the hands don’t reveal much more than that. Explanations of the contents are left out, letting the viewer decide why any one person would carry piles of costume jewelry or ten pairs of work gloves.

One of the most striking elements of this project is the way the contents are arranged. Rather than being haphazardly thrown onto a table, each person’s belongings are arranged carefully on a white canvas. They are put in place by the photographer, who arranges them into orderly little piles, neat stacks and simple lines. The organization doesn’t take away from the honesty of the project; rather, it helps to make visual sense out of the otherwise-messy grouping of random items.

The seemingly insignificant things we all carry every day can actually say more about us as individuals than a traditional portrait ever could. After all, we have little control over our physical characteristics but we alone decide what goes in our pockets, purses, backpacks and briefcases. It would be impossible to get much more personal than laying bare the items which one considers important enough to keep close all day. And that is why “Contents” is so powerful: the seemingly simple act of emptying out pockets and purses can speak volumes about a person that may ordinarily escape detection.

Many of the participants in Mr. Robert’s project felt that they had never been so exposed as when they laid bare the things they carry with them. After all, these are the things we never expect anyone to see. They are our burdens, our treasures, our secret reminders, our past and our future. We could certainly survive without them, but they provide a sense of home away from home.

Since the subjects of these intimate portraits had no clue of what they would be showing to the photographer when they walked into his studio, they likely didn’t think to lighten their daily loads of keys, receipts, phones, notes, business cards…and even, in one person’s case, more than 20 packets of artificial sweetener.

The project might be taken as a call to action: are there things in all our lives that we can stand to live without? Do we carry around unnecessary baggage, whether physical, emotional or mental? Do we hang on to things that we simply don’t need? Do we burden our back and our spirits holding onto objects, experiences and memories that would be better let go?

Then again, one might choose to simply take this set of photographs at face value. They are more telling than portraits, more personal than candid snapshots, more intimate than a conversation. They are representations of each and every one of us in their own way.

Maybe more than anything, Mr. Robert’s photos prove that there is a common thread running between each of us regardless of age, gender, profession or personality. We all balance our daily needs by carrying something with us. Whether that something is a reminder of home, a picture of a loved one, a store membership card, vegetables saved from a Dumpster, or, as was the case with the owner of one very small hand…nothing at all.