Women walk on a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Thursday, January 9, 2020. (Photo by Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

A rescuer saves a resident from a flooded area in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, July 2, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A competitor competes during the Hortobagy Hobby Horse Cup in Tiszafured, Hungary, on October 26, 2024. (Photo by Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

British model Jourdan Dunn poses on the red carpet at the Fashion Awards 2021 in London, United Kingdom on November 29, 2021. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Istanbul-based Ali Gulec is a graphic artist with a difference. His surreal illustrations are like identikit drawings aiming to prosecute the material arts. Working on the margins of what is possible with his medium, Gulec's forms, figures, and situations are remarkable for their clarity and strength of purpose, and maintain an iconographic intensity that would make any rock band bereft of an album cover salivate with admiration.

“Pink Portrait” series by Scott Scheidly makes a slightly different and more literal use of the glamorization; by making the subjects glamorous. Napoleon stuns with a flower crest and pink shoulder tassels, Stalin earns medals of heart and butterfly, rocks a tiny pink earring, and a uniform Elle Woods would be proud of, while Clint Eastwood gets ready to face off in a gorgeous lavender shawl. These guys may be tough, but they all look pretty in pink.

A reveler poses for pictures at the Victorian Picnic during the Wave and Goth festival in Leipzig June 6, 2014. The annual festival, known in Germany as Wave-Gotik Treffen (WGT), features over 150 bands and artist in venues all over the city playing Gothic rock and other styles of the dark wave music subculture. The event, one of the biggest of its kind, attracts a regular audience of up to 20,000, the organizers said. REUTERS/Thomas Peter