All Images © Mitch Epstein, from “New York Arbor” (Steidl)

Mitch Epstein‘s new book, “New York Arbor” includes photographs of the idiosyncratic trees that inhabit New York City; these pictures underscore the importance of trees to urban life and their complex relationship to their human counterparts. Rooted in New York’s parks, gardens, sidewalks, and cemeteries, some trees grow wild, some are contortionists adapting to their constricted surroundings, and others are pruned into prize specimens.  Join Mitch Epstein at Cooper Union tonight, Monday, April 29 at 7:00 pm for a discussion about “New York Arbor.” A book signing at Dashwood Books is Tuesday, May 7th.

© Frans Lanting/National Geographic

Photographer Frans Lanting’s surreal landscape of Namibia’s Dead Vlei in the June issue of National Geographic magazine has many asking whether it’s a painting or photograph. Lanting took a break from his current assignment in Africa to discuss the photograph, the result of a “perfect moment” that “came when the sun reached all the way down to the bottom of the sand dune just before it reached the desert floor.”

© Katrina Tang

Katrina Tang provides a glimpse into a fashion fairy tale of children who escape into a dreamlike, alternative world. More images from Tang’s “Follow The Ribbon Story” series can be seen in the The Look 2010 online gallery.