Artist Sabine Pearlman headed to Switzerland in 2012 on a unique mission. She was there to photograph 900 cross-sections of ammunition in order to expose the "otherwise invisible architecture" of some of the most destructive weaponry ever created.

But in doing so, Pearlman made a conscious choice to not provide her audience with details about specifics: things like the names or purposes of the bullets themselves.

"I wanted to keep them out of context, in order to make it possible for people who look at the images to appreciate them for many different reasons," she said.

"There are some ammunition buffs who want to know all of the details about them, but there are other people out there who don't know much about this. They're looking at these bullets—and seeing and realizing everything that goes into making them."

(See "China's Last Gunslingers.")

—Melody Kramer