A featured image set of calligraphy brush strokes made with black sumi ink on textured white background. These images can be used as graphic design elements either on their own or as a layer mask in your design. In book cover art they can be used as a background for copy space under the book title or as a transparency layer for text to create a dramatic effect.

As busy human beings, always working towards our goals and reaching for success, we generally have little awareness of our body's energy system and our energetic and spiritual health. It might have never occurred to us that when we see another person, either in life, in a photograph or an artwork, the areas that attract or disturb us the most are usually the areas where we ourselves need the most attention, love and acceptance in our body.

When looked through the lens of fear, violence, desire or judgement, a photograph like this might trigger various negative emotions and prejudices associated with objectification, torment, suppression etc. When looked with an open mind and compassion, love and trust, we might see a person who acknowledges her pain and suffering, she brings her awareness to where it hurts the most, she is fully in the present moment, she feels the suffocating pressure imposed by our own judgements and conditioning, by our compliance with the societal norms and by our disconnection from the body and its need for love, care and attention. She trusts that it's not the loving partner that created that inner suffering, but he is the one to bring her awareness to it with gentle touch and loving look and he is here to help her liberate herself from that shame and the fear of suffering and bring her awareness back into her body and into the present moment.

Regardless of the shy look on the innocent young woman's face, she is able to accept and reveal her beautiful, given by the nature body being bound by the ropes of judgement, shame, unacceptance of sexuality, censorship and public opinions. The intricate pattern of the red shibari rope emphasizes her gentle curves, bringing awareness to delicate areas of her body and creating a psychological contrast between the softness of her skin and the tightness of the rope. She is willingly sharing her beauty, fragility and shame with everyone able to see her earnestness, humility and purity without judgments and preconceptions. She is fully in the moment and everyone who sees the image experiences that moment of awe and silence, when all the habitual conditioned thinking stops for a second, before the mind catches up and replaces the present moment with a set of judgments and prefabricated views.

Even though it might appear as suffering, she knows that when the suffering is accepted, it ends. When the ropes are removed, she'll enjoy the tranquility of freedom and will delight in her own inner strength, tolerance, self acceptance and willpower. After that fleeting moment, her life and the lives of those who see, will go back to 'normal' repetitive daily routine, chores, work, social life, which inevitably makes us suppress our inner selves and place innumerable restrictions on our self expression. Unwilling to accept suffering in being judged or unaccepted, we carry our own nature deep within, carefully hidden from the looks of others and from our own minds, creating a dark impenetrable shadow that will never see the light of acceptance.

So which is the suffering, the former or the latter? Both? Neither?

This unusual and transformative year is coming to an end and we would like to express our gratitude to our talented contributors, who, regardless of all the difficulties, keep producing amazingly unique and beautiful works that break all clichés and mass production trends.



True fine art does not come from the mind. It shares the depths of the artists' inner worlds with us. It shows their unique reflection of the universe and the self. This is something that we have a rare chance to see and relate to. And we have faith that their creativity and inspiration will live on and keep surprising us with mysterious and unexpected artistic expressions.

Rested body and a calm, peaceful mind is our luck potion and the secret to our wellbeing and health. Our mindfully painted, Zen inspired, simple and naturally flowing, sumi-e artworks have the gentle power to bring peacefulness and tranquility to your homes and into your lives.



In our collections you can find beautiful and unique sumi-e paintings by Veronika Maxim that can be a part of your Zen home decor, whether it's a living room, a bedroom, a home office space or a kitchen, you will be able to find the art piece which is perfect for your settings. And if you need to customize the colors or the finish of the prints, we'll be happy to do that for you!

This year has unfolded with many new tough challenges for creative professional. You might have been in the industry for a long time or has just started trying to make a profession out of your natural artistic talents. We would love to extend our invitation to all creative professionals to submit their works for evaluation for being included in our exquisite commercial image collections.

It's hard even for us to predict how the image licensing will continue its growth in the upcoming years, but we know that unique, made with heart and feeling, artworks will always have their value, and we will do our best in order to preserve their value and to bring them forward in front of the most demanding clients, high-end publishers, art buyers and designers.



Our prices and approach in traditional Rights-Managed image licensing, reflect our commitment to preserving the value of unique artistic works and treating our creative talents fairly.

Please take a look at the contributor application, your first artwork submission guidelines and how to sell licenses to your photographs and illustrations through MaximImages, here:

Information for new Contributors



You can choose to distribute your works Exclusively (not available for licensing through any third party, but can be licensed or sold as prints directly by you, displayed in your portfolio, Instagram etc.), or Non-Exclusively (without any limitations to the distribution).

You can opt for licensing your works on a Rights Managed basis (licenses will be issued on a per-use basis with all the specified placement details), or as Royalty-free (one time, unlimited, perpetual license per image is issued).

Your royalty from sales is 60%.

You get a contributor profile page where you can advertise yourself and your services or refer visitors to your portfolio, like this: Alex Maxim Contributor Profile

No matter where you are in the world, we will help you with the language barrier. Your time investment into the image placement and the licensing process is minimum. Everything is done in-house by us.

We look forward to seeing your works!

If you are looking for contemporary high-end images of organic gardening, plants, foods, flowers and herbs, we have a particularly nice selection of unique, tastefully art directed and finished images.