Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. A lingering sense of loss and longing hints at emotional depth and draws the viewer into their introspective thrall with a mixture of capricious poetry, wit, and mystery. (Photo by Mike Stilkey)

A government awareness poster for wearing surgical masks is seen reflected and upside-down in the Dambovita river in Bucharest, Romania, 19 November 2020. The poster, depicting a man wearing a surgical mask, reads: “I WEAR A MASK BECAUSE I KNOW THAT ONLY TOGETHER WE WILL SUCCEED!”. As the number of COVID-19 infections increased, authorities decided that wearing a protective mask should become mandatory at all times in all public places. (Photo by Robert Ghement/EPA/EFE)

These adorable cats – which are twins – showcase their contrasting blue and green eyes. The cats have a condition called heterochromia iridis, which causes each eye to vary in color. (Photo by @sis.twins/Caters News Agency)

Costumed dancers parade on the first day of the annual Qoyllur Rit'i festival on May 27, 2018 in Ocongate, Peru. Every year, since 1783 in the Sinakara Valley at the foot of Mt Ausagante, the Qoyllur Rit'i, or “Snow and Star” festival draws tens of thousands of pilgrims from across the Peruvian Andes and beyond to what is the biggest religious gathering of its kind. Since 1780 the event merged into a mosaic of indigenous, pagan and Catholic worship when an image of Jesus appeared on a boulder after the death of a young shepherd. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

British Waters Wide Angle category runner-up. Grass snake swimming along a garden pond by Jack Perks (UK)in Nottinghamshire, UK. “I’m always on the lookout for unusual freshwater subjects and grass snakes are a species I’ve been after for years. I was told about a pond where the odd grass snake hangs around the lilly pads for frogs. I put my drysuit on and got into the water and could see one slithering along the surface. Slowly making my way towards it with my head only just poking above I got the spilt shot”. (Photo by Jack Perks/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019)

A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Francis holding a flag of Ukraine that was sent to him from the Ukrainian town of Bucha during the weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall, in Vatican City, 06 April 2022. The pontiff lamented the “massacre of Bucha”, in the Kyiv suburb where dozens of bodies in civilian clothing have been found, and renewed his calls for an end to the war in Ukraine. (Photo by Vatican Media Handout/EPA/EFE)

An Anti-Balaka fighter, member of a militia opposed to the Seleka rebel group, puts a knife to his throat showing what he would do to any Seleka, on the outskirts of the Boy-Rabe neighborhood in Bangui on December 14, 2013. France raised alarm on December 13 over worsening violence in the Central African Republic, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged warring Christians and Muslims to stop the bloodshed that has left more than 600 dead in the past week. (Photo by Ivan Lieman/AFP Photo)

Members of the New People's Army (NPA) female guerrillas perform a cultural show during the release of a Philippines army soldier in Sugbongcogon town, Misamis Oriental, southern Philippines, November 20, 2015. NPA spokesperson Allan Juanito warned that they will seize more soldiers to exchange them with the government as "Prisoners of war". (Photo by Froilan Gallardo/Reuters)