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)

Ziripot, a traditional figure stuffed with straw, is helped up during Carnival celebrations in the Navarran village of Lantz, on February 16, 2015. (Photo by Vincent West/Reuters)

Revelers participate in J'Ouvert, an overnight celebration the night before the West Indies Day Parade in Brooklyn, NY on September 3, 2018. Violence in past years led NYPD to shut down the parade route until 2am. (Photo by Stephen Yang)

Iranian women sit in a bus in the capital Tehran on June 25, 2019. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said today that new US sanctions against senior Iranian officials including top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif showed Washington is “lying” about an offer to negotiate. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

Models struggle against strong wind before the rehearsal of Christian Dior's Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2017 live show to celebrate Dior's new flagship store on the rooftop of Ginza Six mall in Tokyo, Japan, April 19, 2017. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

Shura Kitata of Ethiopia runs past cardboard cut-outs of the Duke of Cambridge and the Queen at the London Marathon in London, Britain, 04 October 2020. (Photo by Tom Jenkins/The Guardian)

A shepherd, holding a lamb, is seen in Gurpinar district of Van, Turkiye on March 30, 2022. Norduz sheep, which are among the significant germplasm of Turkiye and therefore the number of which is aimed to be increased with the state-funded projects. Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry of Van has started work to protect the breed and increase the number of Norduz sheep, which have one more rib than regular sheep and have higher meat and milk yield. Projects are impelling to rise the number of small cattle and to protect local breeds due to the fact that Van ranks first in Turkiye in terms of small cattle. (Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

In November 2021 Bryan Adams took the pictures for next year’s Pirelli calendar, which features fellow musicians including Cher, Rita Ora, Iggy Pop and the American singer Jennifer Hudson, above, as it depicts a typical day in the life of a touring performer. (Photo by Bryan Adams/Pirelli)