Kevin Van Aelst, contributing photographer to the New York Times Magazine, uses "common artifacts and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged, assembled, and constructed into various forms, patterns, and illustrations."

Open-face Oreo cookies are shifted to resemble a yin yang sign, meticulously cut crackers are used to show world time clocks, finger prints are recreated with cheese puffs, crust on a cherry pie — and mustard on a ham sandwich. Says Van Aelst, "The images aim to examine the distance between the 'big picture' and the 'little things' in life — the banalities of our daily lives, and the sublime notions of identity and existence."

Apple Globe (2007)

Splash (2009)





















Hawaii (2007)

One Heart Beat (2008)

Local Times (2005)

Common Clouds (2007)



Summer Constellations (lint and thread on sweater), 2005

Cantor Set (2004)

The Golden Mean (2004)



Right Ring Finger, 2007







Left Ring Finger (2007)

Right Thumb (2007)





Right Index Finger (2007)

Left Index Finger (2007)











Beta-Carotene Molecule (2006)