To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.

Τhe hovering car without wheels, also called the hovercar, is a constant fixture in science fiction films, video games and comic books, and a long-standing dream for car lovers and technology fans alike. This dream is also shared by French photographer Renaud Marion, who creates images depicting hovering cars in everyday urban settings. In his ongoing photographic project titled ‘‘Air Drive’’, Marion combines retro car designs with futuristic technology, a project driven by his childhood visions of how the world was going to look like in the future. (Photo by Renaud Marion)

Sandrine Kerfante has had a fascination with “doubles” ever since meeting her mother’s twin as a child. In 2012, this lifelong captivation inspired her to create a blog called twin-niwt, which celebrates photographs of doubles in all their forms. “I’m fascinated by the idea of the duo, repetition, symmetry, reflection, mirror games and all the symbolism associated with it”, she says. “I think it’s a topic often present in photography, more or less consciously”. (Photo by Sandrine Kerfante/The Guardian)

A child, from Municipal school Parana, poses during the project “Fencing School” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 30, 2016. Children in Rio de Janeiro lift their sights and their swords to new idols, as a round of fencing workshops takes to public schools. The International Fencing Federation, together with the Brazilian and state federations, will reach 40 public schools in March and April. The aim is to whip up a following for the Olympic sport, little known in the soccer-mad nation, as Rio sets the stage for the Summer Games in August. (Photo by Sergio Moraes/Reuters)

Chippi, 22, from Senegal sits on someone’s shoulder shirtless participating in a large snow ball fight in Washington Square Park on January 29, 2022 in New York City. According to the National Weather Service New York City is expected to receive between 8-12 inches of snow and 40 to 45 mph wind gusts during the first major Nor’Easter storm of the season. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that there is a 24 hour a State of Emergency in effect. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

A policeman controls traffic at 42nd Street and 7th Avenue as New York City remains without electricity caused by a blackout that affected the entire city and most of the eastern part of the nation August 15, 2003 in New York, New York. More than 50 million people were affected by the outage, in Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland and New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)

People celebrate media announcing that Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden has won the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattan, in New York City, U.S. November 7, 2020. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)