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)

“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

These adorable cats – which are twins – showcase their contrasting blue and green eyes. The cats have a condition called heterochromia iridis, which causes each eye to vary in color. (Photo by @sis.twins/Caters News Agency)

“Erwin Olaf is a Dutch photographer. Olaf is most famous for his commercial and personal work. His work has received many awards and he has held exhibitions around the world”. – Wikipedia. Photo: «Berlin» Project. Porträt 01, April, 22, 2012. (Photo by Erwin Olaf/Hasted Kraeutler Gallery)

“Romain Laurent is 29 years old, originally from the french Alps, living and working in Paris. Romain Laurent studied design for 3 years at ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres (National school of applied arts) in Paris and then switched to Photography at Gobelins, l’ecole de l’image, also in Paris. Working as a professional photographer since 2006”.

A Chinese couple take pictures in an interactive installation art work named “You and Me” on Valentine's Day at 798 Art Zone on February 14, 2012 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

Crew members work to secure a hot air balloon after landing during the 2015 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 4, 2015. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)