The eclectic and the curious: Selections from the Foto8 Summershow

By David R Arnott, NBC News

What makes a good photograph? That's the question at the heart of the Foto8 Summershow, a self-styled Salon de photographie opening on Friday evening in London.

A few weeks ago I joined Foto8's editors to help out with the preliminary selections for this year's exhibition. It was a daunting task. Photographers from many nations and all walks of life entered a grand total of 3,226 images, of which 159 were chosen to be squeezed on to the gallery's walls for an exhibition running until August 18. Scroll down to get a small taste of what's on offer, and follow @foto8 for the announcement of the 'Best in Show'.

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Adam Patterson via Foto8

Mum and kid. From a series looking at the lives of a community in Tallaght, Ireland.

Timothy Allen via Foto8

Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea.

Oliver Eglin via Foto8

Untitled #01. Taken from the series 'We Live As We Dream', a nocturnal study of youth in Neuköln, Berlin. Produced in collaboration with Derzeit.

Ashley Gilbertson via Foto8

#OccupyWallStreet, No. 2. An Occupy Wall Street protester meditates in Zuccotti park after the movement was evicted by NYPD the prior evening.

Paul Gaffney via Foto8

Untitled, from the series 'We Make The Path By Walking', which deals with the subject of long distance walking as a means of meditation and personal transformation, and aims to immerse the viewer in a fictional journey which evokes this subtle internal progress and change.

Jan von Holleben via Foto8

World-travellers.

Steve Dierkens via Foto8

Tuxedo Pee Break. Toilet break during a formal student initiation in the garden of a student flat in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Fabio Bucciarelli via Foto8

The Libyan Wish. A Libyan fighter sits on a rocket launcher mounted on a pickup truck outside the walls of Sirte. The Battle of Sirte was the toughest fighting of the Libyan war.