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)

Sgt. William Olas Bee, a U.S. Marine from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmsir in Helmand Province of Afghanistan, May 18, 2008. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Amateur honorable mention | Common raven at Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Colleen Gara/Audubon Photography Awards)

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)

Hikaru Cho believes that we should challenge our imaginations to create new work using traditional tools, not fancy computers and software. (Photo by Jim Marks/PA Wire)

Saintsetseg Jambaldorj, a member of the Tsaatan ethnic minority, one of the last remaining groups of nomadic reindeer herders in East Taiga, Mongolia, wearing a traditional deel, on July 5, 2016. (Photo by Madoka Ikegami/Barcroft Images)

A man with a glitter beard marches along the San Francisco Pride parade route in San Francisco, California on Sunday, June, 26, 2016. (Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP Photo)

In this photograph taken on August 25, 2016, an Afghan shepherd watches over his sheep as they graze on the outskirts of Herat. (Photo by Aref Karimi/AFP Photo)