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 woman walks in the stairs of the Hotel Martinez in Cannes as the French Riviera prepares for the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival which will take place next July, in France, June 3, 2021. (Photo by Eric Gaillard/Reuters)

A man helps his partner on the traditional costume as they visit to the Temple of Heaven during the last day of the week-long China’s National Day in Beijing, Thursday, October 7, 2021. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

Bonbibi, Treehouse Point, Fall City, WA. The Bonbibi is balanced on two steel yokes. The yokes spread out the load and allow for tree growth and movement in the wind. A small deck hangs from the beams below and uses the treehouse itself to shelter guests. (Photo by Pete Nelson)

“A series of ads, developed as a creative idea for UN Women by Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai, uses genuine Google searches to reveal the widespread prevalence of sexism and discrimination against women. Based on searches dated 9 March, 2013 the ads expose negative sentiments ranging from stereotyping as well as outright denial of women’s rights”. – UN Women. (Photo by Ogilvy & Mather, Dubai, UAE/UN Women)

Born with a rare condition, the artist has chronicled her life in portraits – capturing everything from her tattooed prosthetics to the tentacled creature she stitched together on the shores of Naoshima. Here: Ophelia (2013). From a series of photos of imagined women exhibited at the 2013 Aichi Triennale. Here, Katayama invokes Hamlet’s tragic heroine, after the painting by British pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais. (Photo by Mari Katayama/The Guardian)

An Iraqi woman attends a festival commemorating the International Day of Peace in Baghdad, September 21, 2015. (Photo by Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)

(L-R) Jesse Montana , Kyle Chan, James Kennedy and Anthony F. attend Kyle Chan's “Star Wars vs. s*xy Aliens” Birthday Party at Sofitel Hotel on February 19, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Robin L Marshall/Getty Images)