Part fashion designer, part comic book aficionado, Haris Nukem is one of the most imaginative and evocative photographers to emerge in recent years. Influenced by the renaissance artist Caravaggio, his work is said to be a passionate study of the human spirit in the 21st century. He loves fairy tales, mythology, rebels, freckles, tattoos, body hair and granular textures. He was born in 1989 in Bosnia, which was then still part of  Yugoslavia and left as a political refugee to United Kingdom which granted him asylum. He said in a an interview that Croatia is still his favorite place on earth, and that the cobbled medieval art district of Rovinj, is his favorite art center: “I love to see people making what they can with what they have. That spirit of creation runs through everyone.” 

“Fine Art and Dark Beauty Portrait Photography” (2018) turned Nukem into a household name.  Inspired by the book “Tribe” by Sebastian Junger, he incorporated tribal energy and  with piercings, tattoos, highlighting their beauty and diminishing the stigma.

The price of the exhibition was to “pay what you can afford”, where all the proceeds went towards the charity “Help Refugees”. Nukem’s two main art dealers are Maddox Gallery and Woodbury House and his unique pieces can be found and sold on Artnet.

Nukem said in a Lodown Magazine interview that the most important thing for him is to make sure a photograph has a strong intention and connects with the audience. His work happens quite naturally, without much need for a high level of pre-production. However he spends most of his time building relationships with his models to get to know them better. For example, one of his models named “Kikz” was born in Nigeria and escaped a life of child slavery by emigrating to the United Kingdom. She has started a new life by becoming a dancer. In one of her photographs, she is dressed in her native Nigerian finery worn by West African Queens, while raising a teacup demonstrating her new British life. The compelling contrast between these two cultures can be seen below to the right.

“The Pursuit” , by Haris Nukem.

Nukem has also recently published his first hard-copy book “Ten Days at the Mandrake” (2020), where his photographic work is listed as a time capsule. The book is accompanied with poetry written by Charlotte Rose. The book includes 36 photo-stories shot at the London Hotel, with every new page telling a new story and theme: religion, death, belonging, madness etc. Another one of Nukem’s recent projects was a solo show called “Humans” at London’s NR Project Art spaces in summer 2019. The show focused the beauty that emerges when individuals are willing to free themselves from society’s norms and embrace the concepts of breaking out of social standards.   

The young artist has had an impressive beginning to his career. In just five short years, Nukem has become one of the United Kingdom’s most highly admired contemporary artists. Many articles and applications have recognized his achievements and have shared his artwork. Applications such as Pinterest and websites such as Artnet have highlighted Haris Nukem’s talent by sharing his artwork pieces. His photographs start conversations, and give people access to a world that isn’t theirs.

Online dating has become one of the most popular ways to meet potential partners. Dating applications such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge allow everyone to swipe right, making it incredibly easy to meet new people. With such sheer volume of encounters come a multitude of stories that often end by someone getting ghosted. Furthermore, new words are emerging. Benching: When someone is on the fence about a potential suitor, but instead of getting rid of them, they’ll keep their options open and would put them on the ‘bench’ – where there might be several others waiting. Bread-crumbing is leaving a trail of short but flirtatious messages for a potential date without having any intention of starting a relationship. Cushioning is someone with a new partner who keeps several other option on the backburner — just in case the main relationship goes south. “Cloaking” is like “Ghosting”, but much worse. Cloaking is when a person doesn’t just stand you up for a planned date, they also block you on all social media platforms that they follow you on.

Our first online dating  story comes from a blogger named Rachel Thompson who invented the term “cloaking”. She matched with Matthew on Hinge and they really hit it off quite well. He asked her out on a date Thursday night to an Italian restaurant called Padella in London. 

As Thursday night came along, she arrived at the restaurant and messaged him letting him know she has arrived. After about a half hour, Rachel checked her Whatsapp, where she had messaged him, and realized that her messages weren’t delivering. When she tried to iMessage him, the messages were sending as green rather than blue. She then opened Hinge, the dating app where they had met, and saw that all of their flirty messages had been erased. Matthew was even gone from her list of matches.

Even though Matthew never responded, Jessica felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulder after sending the message. As time went on, Jessica heard of many other stories of her friends experiencing being ghosted or cloaked when online dating. It is an inescapable experience in the online dating world, however everyone deserves an explanation nonetheless! 

The next story is from an anonymous user who met a charming man on Tinder. Here she explains her story: “So I met this guy on Tinder and we really hit it off and were texting for months, on Skype and the phone every day. He lived in London and I lived in Toronto so it was a bit of a long distance thing. I visited him one weekend and things got really hot and heavy but he didn’t want to have sex because he “didn’t want to lose me.” I pushed him on what that meant but he didn’t really give me a straight answer. So as I was leaving he said “text me when you get home so I know you got home safe. So I get home, and text him, no reply. The next day I check and ask “Hows your day?” and no answer. A few days go by and I’m like “Hey, are you okay?” and no response. This guy had really expressed feelings for me so it was odd that he would just disappear. Fast forward MONTHS later out of boredom I set up a Kijiji ad that said “Free N-64 to whoever leaves me the best Taylor Swift impression voicemail” and left his number as the contact number (Because I’m petty AF). A few days later I sent him a Taylor Swift meme on Facebook and he was like THAT WAS YOU! Then he broke down and told me why he ghosted: He had become a Jehovah’s witness and thought I was too tempting, and also his ex had called him saying she had a secret abortion of his baby and he went into a deep depression and didn’t talk to anyone for months. Needless to say, I declined when he said he wanted to try things again.”

The third story is on the more positive side, which comes from Natasha. The following user was introverted and never believed in making any friends or being in any relationships. One day, his best friend, who happens to be quite a dating expert, suggested to find him an online date for Friday night. However, Natasha was very against this idea because she wanted to find her prince charming in a more romantic way. As the two best friends argued, they decided to try it out since Natasha had not had any luck finding any dates on her own. They made Natasha an account on Match.com. The following day, Natasha had a match with a charming man asking her out to dinner this weekend. She agreed, even though she felt uncomfortable when another person paid for her and took her out with the chance of getting ghosted, as it has happened to her before. The day of their date, she arrived 10 minutes early. He only arrived half an hour later. He apologised for being late, as he had gotten pulled over for speeding and the cop gave him a hard time. They ended up talking for hours and began to really like each other’s company. After seeing each other for over 2 years, they knew they were perfect for one another and got married. They ended up having a beautiful 6 month old daughter. Natasha hates to admit that she met her husband on an online dating website, but she is also extremely grateful for the day she put herself out there. She is now blessed with a beautiful family due to her date from Match.com. 

The following  online dating story is shared by an anonymous user. On the second meeting with her man, she invited him over to her house with the conditions that he would leave as soon as it got dark. When the sun set, the man did not leave and instead snuck around to finish a bottle of alcohol that was in his backpack. He began to slur his words and would not leave. As he was too drunk to use public transport, she tried to drive him home but he would not tell her the address. She demanded to see his wallet to look at his ID and get his address, but he pulled out a tin of Altoids instead. She believed that he was pretending to be drunk, until she finally got fed up and dropped him off at a Dicks in his neighborhood because he didn’t know where he lived and was only speaking nonsense. When he got out, he stumbled into the street and parking lot without looking. She went back home and realized that he forgot his backpack. She then finds his wallet with his ID, the death certificate of his child who had committed suicide, and some key papers. The next day, she brought him back his belongings and ended up giving him another chance. She still regrets it to this day. 

This next story comes from a female Tinder member who is still fuming till this day. She started seeing this guy she met on Tinder and they ended up agreeing to be exclusive. All of a sudden, he just stopped texting her and she has absolutely no idea what she did wrong. As most girls would do, her and her friends stalked his social media accounts only to find a SEPARATE Instagram account.

This account exposed that he has a girlfriend and that they were together in Cuba at that very moment. Why would he ask her to be exclusive if he had another girlfriend?! She was absolutely blindsided but did not say a word. About a week after ghosting her, she received a text from him saying “I miss you” WHILE he was still on vacation with his girlfriend. She sent back a screenshot of his instagram account with his girlfriend and a “F*ck You” text, followed by blocking his accounts.

Finally, this last story is from the Twitter user BARTY. She has shared her most hilarious and also weirdest date experience.  She had her first real date with this guy that she met  online. They met on social media and in no time they began to know each other very well. After some days they planned to go for a movie on the coming weekend. The actual hilarious story begins here when they both reach exactly on time and soon realise that none of them had purchased the ticket in advance because of this reason they couldn’t manage to get two tickets next to each other. Finally they ended up sitting on the opposite sides of the theater. After the movie they did not ever meet again. Barty expresses this as her weirdest date she ever had. 

Nowadays, online dating can be very unpredictable. Some online dates end in marriage and a beautiful family, while many others end in getting ghosted or even “cloaked”. Although many users prefer meeting a significant other in person at an event or out on a stroll, it cannot be ignored that online dating has facilitated the dating world and how we interact and meet compatible matches. Many people would agree that this is for the best, while many other users on Twitter share the same opinion that Online Dating Applications are actually ruining relationships. The reasoning behind this is that online dating users find it harder to settle down with one individual due to there being an abundance of other dating profiles waiting for them to swipe right if something doesn’t work out. Dating has never been easier, or harder as other users would say. 

Throughout history, many pandemics have caught human kind by surprise, such as the Spanish flu during the 1910’s and the H1N1 swine flu during the 2010’s. COVID-19 has already affected millions of lives throughout the world. As a result, we have witnessed a total restructuring of our world and an increasing amount of fear and uncertainty. However, many scientists and researchers have been collecting data on viruses for decades and some have predicted the pandemic. In this article, we will be highlighting the top 10 individuals who have anticipated the current outbreak. 

Laurie Garnett, an award winning journalist, has been predictive about the impact of H.I.V in the past and also about the spread of contagious viruses throughout the globe. More precisely, Garnett warned the world in her 1994 best seller book “The Coming Plague” about a pandemic like the current COVID-19. She currently envisions the development of a cure or vaccine in a 36 month/3 year time frame as the best scenario. Her vision encompasses that this pandemic will hit society in waves and will lead to the population re-evaluating the importance of travel. 

Garnett’s history of accuracy has led her to be in high demand for her expertise. Every day, she responds to a high amount of interviews from all over the world. 

Researcher Shi Zhengli is the director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory located in Wuhan. For the past 10 years she has warned the world that bats harbor viruses that pose serious risks to human health. She has hunted for viruses in bat caves in China for the past 16 years. Zhengli has warned her colleagues that new viruses are accelerating due to the high density of people and animals living together, cross contaminating bacteria that humans are not immune to. During her research, Shi and her team hike for hours to discover cave sites in extremely uncomfortable conditions. In one week, Shi has explored more than 30 caves and has only seen around a dozen bats. Bats are animals who carry a very high number of viruses, diseases and bacteria. Conducting research on these nocturnal creatures has helped further the research of viruses such as SARS. 

Therefore, Shi’s research has helped scientists find the source of the virus and has helped society better understand the pandemic. From the beginning of her experiments, Shi has predicted the virus by suggesting that the cross contamination with bats will cause tragedies to a great degree of the human population, due to our lack of immunity to their diseases. Fortunately, Zhengli’s research on bat pathogens has helped scientists understand and deal with the current COVID-19 outbreak.

For the past decade, infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm has been generating predictions and warning society of a global pandemic coming our way. Osterholm wrote in a Foreign Affairs magazine that “This is a critical point in our history. Time is running out to prepare for the next pandemic. We must act now with decisiveness and purpose.” He also states in his book “Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs”, published in 2017, that the United States is not prepared for an upcoming pandemic. 

Therefore, Michael’s profession and research has allowed him to test his hypothesis of diseases and make predictions on the subject. His profession allows him to work closely with data on past and current diseases. As a result, Osterholm has appeared to be accurate in his predictions about the upcoming pandemic, as we are currently dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Jeremy Konyndyk is the former director of USAID’s Office of US  Foreign Disaster Assistance under the Obama administration. Konyndyk wrote in a Politico article published in 2017, that a virus similar to the 1928 flu pandemic will emerge. He adds that it is not a matter of if, but when. Furthermore, Konyndyk shares the same prediction as the previous individuals of the United States and President Trump being unprepared for such a worldwide pandemic. Jeremy’s reasoning behind his claims are based on world wide travel and cross contamination. 

A reporter for the Times magazine in New York city, Bryan Walsh, has written two articles in 2006 and 2017 that predicted an upcoming event similar to the Coronavirus that the world is currently experiencing.

The first article written in 2006 focuses on the negative effects of Global warming, and is warning the population to be worried due to the effects China and India may have on the planet. Therefore, it is quite apparent that reporters have been targeting large overpopulated countries as future threats. For example, China covers approximately 9,600,000 square kilometres and holds around 1.428 billion people in 2017. A population of this size living close together holds a high risk of rapid spread. 

The second article written in 2017 focuses on America not being ready for a future pandemic. Walsh writes about our planet being “hyper connected with hyper infectious diseases which experts are not ready to keep America and the world safe from”. The article focuses mainly on viruses’ sparking from present circulating pandemics originating from China. Using the example of the H7N9, Walsh explains that the H7N9 cannot yet spread easily from person to person. However, the longer the virus spends in the human body, the better chance it has to mutate and become more contagious. It is only a matter of time before it hops off a plane from China on to foreign lands, where it could spread through the air very rapidly. Therefore, Walsh accurately predicted the current CODIV-19 pandemic, which is effectively airborne and is spreading through the entire world like wildfire. 

Similar to China’s ‘batwoman” Shi Zhengli, Peter Daszak and his team explore caves to expose themselves to the world’s deadliest unknown viruses for research purposes. Before the night begins, the team sets up nets around target areas and patiently wait for nightfall where thousands of bats fly right into the net looking for food. 

Over the past 10 years, Daszak has visited over 20 countries trying to prevent the next big pandemic. During his research, Peter has discovered over 500 new pathogens. One of those viruses, found on a bat in a cave in China in 2013, was an ancestor of the COVID-19. He has predicted this current pandemic due to his position of working closely among bats and their viruses. He explains that it was just a matter of time before an individual gets infected and spreads the virus, especially in the living conditions many Chinese citizens face. However, Daszak and Zhengli’s research on bat’s and their carriers is helping scientists around the world find a cure for the tragic Coronavirus. 

American screenwriter, producer and director Scott Z Burn is the screenwriter of the previously mentioned 2011 film “Contagion”. He predicted the coronavirus pandemic as well, due to his recent statements in a Variety interview. 

Scott explains in the interview that when he was working on the movie, every scientist he spoke to said that the pandemic is a matter of when, not if. Z Burn was also very aware that the Department of Homeland Security has a pandemic team prepared because it is a real life threat. Scott’s predictions showcased in his movie unfortunately came to life 9 years late in 2020. 

The most well known individual to have made predictions on this virus is the cofounder of the Microsoft corporation. Although he began his career as a computer developer and programmer, he has devoted the last 20 years to health and medicine. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, a famous newspaper that emphasises on business and economic news, Bill Gates warns society that outbreaks will happen around every 20 years. Gates explains that individuals of society are now travelling much more often than people of other centuries, and is causing great risk of spreading viruses and infectious diseases. Human contact between individuals of different backgrounds is at its peak during travel, and causes people with different immunities to exchange bacteria that many bodies are not used to. 

Furthermore, in a TED talk that took place in 2015, Gates states that the world is not prepared for the pandemic ahead, based on the effects of the Ebola virus crisis in 2014. He was certainly accurate in his predictions, due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak attacking the world economy and filling hospitals to maximum capacities with lack of supplies. Prior to the Coronavirus outbreak, very little investments were made towards a pandemic safety plan. In the same TED talk, Gates stated that “the failure to prepare could allow the next epidemic to be dramatically more devastating than Ebola”. Once again, this world known business man is accurate in his predictions about the present pandemic. 

Further evidence of his predictions is seen in a discussion about epidemics in 2018, where Bill Gates suggested a pandemic will occur within the following decade. Gates prediction happened within the next 2 years, further proving his prediction accuracy. 

Former White House National Security Council (NSC) team member Luciana Borio, who specializes in pandemics, predicted the current pandemic. Dr. Borio warned her team in 2018 of a pandemic flu threat that will be the number one health security problem. Furthermore, she also predicted that scientists and politicians will not be ready to respond.

All of the mentioned public figures have all predicted some sort of virus affected human kind worldwide in the near future, and they have all been right. Although society was not prepared for this tragic pandemic as a whole, researchers are actively searching for a cure and strategies to deal with this virus.