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 couple kisses during a LGBT Pride parade in Oviedo, northern Spain, June 28, 2016. (Photo by Eloy Alonso/Reuters)

A contestant poses for a photograph backstage ahead of the Miss Gay Jozi pageant in Johannesburg, May 23, 2015. (Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

The Golden Gai is a sliver of old Tokyo in a modern metropolis filled with endless gleaming buildings. It's a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction, for sure. But it's also a place for a few drinks and friendly chatter among exhausted workers known as “salarymen”. Here: A man strolls through a narrow alleyway clustered with tiny bars and restaurants at the Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, July 17, 2019. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

People cool off at the water park during the “Circuit” the international gay festival in Vilassar de Dalt, Spain, Tuesday, August 9, 2016. The special international event has attracted many thousands and the gay festival “Circuit” runs until August 14. (Photo by Manu Fernandez/AP Photo)

People march past the Colosseum during the Gay Pride parade in Rome, Saturday, June 11, 2016. Italy joined the rest of Europe last month in giving some legal rights to gay couples after a years-long battle and opposition from the Catholic Church to anything that smacked of authorizing gay marriage. (Photo by Fabio Frustaci/AP Photo)

A human rainbow is created at a BASEOrlando coordinated event, “Orlando Strong Body Paint”, on Friday, June 17, 2016 in Orlando, Fl. The group created the rainbow, composed of volunteers numbering the same as that of the victims of the Pulse shooting, as a visual reminder of the amount of lives lost. (Photos by Amanda Voisard/The Washington Post)