Hallstatt has been an isolated small village for thousands of years. It lies at a small bank between the bottom of a steep hillside and a lake and had been famous for hundreds of years because of its rich salt sources. During winter times the village was not accessible from the outside. In the second half of the last century it became a famous tourist destination. Beside its beauty the village is also known for its very special bone house. For hundreds of years inhabitants of Hallstatt were buried on the very small cemetery in the center. For generations it was custom to excavate the bones after ten to twenty years, bleach them and paint them with ornaments, names and dates of birthday and day of death. More than 600 skulls rest in Hallstatt’s small bone house. It is the only known bone house where skull and bones are ornamented. The last ornament had been done in the 1970s by Heinrich Kirchschlager who died in 1976 and ornamented the skull of his father. Today it still would be allowed for the inhabitants to arrange such an after‐death ritual (they have to include this in their last will) but the tradition seem to be forgotten and none of today’s inhabitants (around 700 people) knows the ancient tradition of this cult, so the bone house more and more becomes a tourist attraction…
A customer is dancing to live music in Café Sezam, located near the so-called “Balkan Mile” in the 16th district. 
A singer from Serbia in Café Sezam. 
Customers of Café Sezam enjoy a plate full of meat. 
Café Sezam bar owner Murat Ladjar, originally coming from Novi Pazar, is showing off his Tito tattoo. 
The photographer in the middle.
In Buddhism the most important date is the weekday you are born. There are eight days a week (wednesday is divided in two parts, before and after midday). Around Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda eight statues of Buddha along with the relevant animal for the day of birth are situated clockwise. Buddhist believers go to their birthday corner and water the Buddha and the animal to gain merit for the afterlife.
Buddhist nuns walk around Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma’s most sacred site. 
A father has just taken an image of the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma’s most sacred place, and shows it to his daughter. The Golden Pagoda is said to enshrine eight strands of Buddha’s hair inside.
A young Burmese girl is sitting in front of one of the pilgrim-shops in Shwedagon Pagoda. The girl’s face is covered with Tanaka, a paste made out of wood’s bark used for cosmetics as well as protection against the sun.
A young Buddhist girl is praying in Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda, the most holy site of the country. 
Buddhist believers walk clockwise around Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma’s most sacred place. The Golden Pagoda is said to enshrine eight strands of Buddha’s hair inside.
The Shwedagon Pagoda seen from Kandawgy Lake.
BURMA. The name Intha is said to mean ‘children of the lake’. The Intha are famous for their highly individual rowing technique. Fishermen wrap a paddle around one hand and leg and use this to propel the boat, while balancing precariously on the other. This position leaves them with one hand free, allowing them to drop a large conical net over passing fish in the shallow waters of the lake.
Belvedere. Vienna, Austria.
View of Mount Dachstein from Lake Gossau. 
Toplitzsee (Lake Toplitz), Austria.
Syrian Bedouin family living near the Syrian border in Turkish Hatay province.
Syrian Bedouin.
Syrian Bedouin woman with her baby inside a makeshift tent.
Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Srimongol, Bangladesh.
“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald) – Košice, Slovakia.
The ‘victory monument’ near Mullaitiviu portraying a Sri Lankan Army officer holding the country’s flag was raised to mark the battle at Mullaitivu beach in Nandikadal lagoon where the Tamil rebels (LTTE) and their leader were crushed by the Sri Lankan Army.
Singhalese army soldiers at a wartime memorial near Elephant Pass.
A Tamil man with the significant tikka, a Hindu symbol, on his face is sitting in front of his shop in Jaffna.
A Singhalese army soldier seen through the window of a passing car. 
Tamil woman at a small fish market in Jaffna.
The contamination from the final phase of the war (2008-2009) now poses the most immediate and significant threat to returning families…
…as most of the mines in Kilinochchi were laid by the LTTE after civilians were displaced, returning families are often not aware of where minefields have been laid.
In the Northern province, especially around the area of Mullaitivu, the scars of war are most evident. Destroyed houses line next to mined land.
A torn election poster of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. 
A Christian man selling vegetables in a market area in Jaffna. 
A Sri Lankan Army bus on the Waddukwakal Bridge. The scene was the setting of an intense battle between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE in the final days of the war in 2009. 
A Tuk Tuk driver is weaving through Bangkok’s night-time traffic.
A woman riding a motorcycle in remote Xieng Khouang province, Laos. 
Area at the ship-breaking yards in Sitakund, near Chittagong. Piece by piece ships are dismantled. Workers face tough conditions, extreme hard labor, fatal working incidents, the exposure of asbestos and toxic waste are among the deadly threats. 
An ocean vessel at the ship-breaking yards of Sitakund, Bangladesh waiting to be dismantled by the workers.
An old man is standing for a portrait in Dhaka’s ship-building yards.
Workers rest in Dhaka’s ship-building yards.
Ocean vessels, ready to be dismantled by Bangladeshi and migrant workers, are stranded at the muddy beaches of Sitakund, Bangladesh along with old life boats. The vessels are dismantled by the workers within six months.
Barrels with oil are standing next an ocean vessel on the muddy beach of Sitakund Bangladehs. The vessel will be dismantled by workers within six months. Safety and environment regulations are mostly ignored.
Life boats of dismantled ocean vessels cover the muddy beaches of Sitakund, Bangladesh after everything else of the ship has been cut off and sold.
Old vessels are being rebuild in Dhaka’s ship-building yards.
Young workers in Dhaka’s ship-building yards.
An injured employee at the ship-breaking yards. Extremely hard labour, fatal working incidents, the exposure of abestos and toxic waste are among the deadly threats.
A worker at Bangladesh’s ship-breaking yards in Sitakund ist standing next to a big ocean vessel.
Kids playing in Dhaka’s ship-building yards.
An Elephant is protecting from midday sun in Udawalawe Nationalpark, Sri Lanka.
The river “Wien” beneath the inner city of Vienna. 
A fish vendor outside of his shop in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
An old man is opening his mechanic shop in Mandalay, Burma. 
Two boys working for a sub-contractor of a garment-factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
A young Roma boy is forced to beg in the streets of Bratislava, Slovakia. He was playing his accordion in several locations across the city, always only for a limited time to avoid being picked up by Slovakian police.
A young boy working in a shipyard in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
New roads are constructed in remote Chin-State, Burma, often with the use of low-paid child labor.
Two teenagers in Walbrzych, Poland, are searching for ‘black gold’ in an illegal coal mine. The boys work on their own and are selling the coal to friends and neighbors in order to earn some money.
A young boy working in a shipyard in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
A young girl is selling bells on the streets of Yangon, Burma.
Boys working for a sub-contractor of a garment-factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
A Puffin picks up blade of grass to line its burrow.
Puffins often wait nearby their burrows before returning back with sand-eels in their mouth to watch out for gulls and other seabirds that may steal their food.
Atlantic Puffins catch up to a dozen fish or more, mostly sand-eels, to bring a meal for their chicks. 
Puffins rub their beaks to show other seabirds they are a brace. 
Puffins burrow near cliffs for an easy access to the sea.
A puffin brace with their chick which has not yet the significant large orange beak.
An Atlantic Puffin exits its burrow near the open sea. Burrows are several feet deep to keep eggs or chicks safe.
Zijad, an 8 year old boy from Syria’s Idlib region and another victim of war, recently fled with his family by crossing illegally the border into Turkish Hatay province. In this image he is seen being examined by an Austrian plastic surgeon inside the Emel hospital at the Syrian border prior to an operation necessary to engraft skin from other parts of his body.
