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)

Fire photographer Tod Sudmeier gets hit with flying embers from strong winds at the Solimar brush fire that started early Saturday morning in Ventura County, California December 26, 2015. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Reuters)

A “nail house”, the last building in the area, sits in the middle of a road under construction in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region April 10, 2015. According to local media, the owner of the house didn't reach an agreement with the local authority about compensation of the demolition. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

The rarely seen blue sharks photographed by Saeed Rashid in British waters. Elusive blue sharks have recently been spotted off the south coast of England, having moved to the UKs warmer waters to hunt. The carnivorous sharks have been lurking off the coast of the popular British holiday destination, Penzance, in Cornwall. (Photo by Saeed Rashid/Caters News)

North Korean traffic police women chat next to a residential building while off duty Tuesday, October 18, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

A Baby sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) plays around in a tree as they train at Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme's rehabilitation center on November 12, 2016 in Kuta Mbelin, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The Orangutans in Indonesia have been known to be on the verge of extinction as a result of deforestation and poaching. Found mostly in South-East Asia, where they live on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, the endangered species continue to lose their habitat as a result of corporate expansion in a developing economy. Indonesia approved palm oil concessions on nearly 15 million acres of peatlands over the past years and thousands of square miles have been cleared for plantations, including the lowland areas that are the prime habitat for orangutans. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

A Muslim woman wearing a Hijab stands in the waters in the Mediterranean Sea as an Israeli stands nearby on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel August 21, 2016. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

A model (R) wearing a dress adorned with chocolate stands backstage prior to a fashion show during the annual “Salon du Chocolat” expo in Seoul, South Korea on January 10, 2020. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)