The former presenter of German TV channel ZDF Nina Ruge, 61, on her difficult start in life, on having to struggle alone, and on the pain of not having had children. 

His pictures are just like his life: extreme and intense. How he takes them, too: in Siberia, North Korea, and the Caucasus. Why he goes in search of isolation rather than taking photographs of people, why he could no longer meditate after his father’s death, and what frightened him on his trip to North Korea.

At 22, he fled Communist Hungary and became an enemy of the state dictatorship. Today, Leslie Mandoki, 65, has links with both Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and works to build bridges.

His career began as an extra at the Klagenfurt theater, the same place where a young Udo Jürgens discovered his love of piano. Marko Kathol found this world so fascinating that he quit school at the age of 17 and became a ballet dancer. Then a tenor. He was blessed by success. Until burnout struck.