Model Amanda Kaspor of Highland, Michigan poses with the CT&T e-Zone Plus electric car is displayed during the press preview for the world automotive media North American International Auto Show at the Cobo Center January 12, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Bryan Mitchell/Getty Images)

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.

“Residents in a small town littered with giant potholes may be ready to “crack” the art world – after turning their massively damaged roads into hilarious masterpieces. Fun-natured drivers from Scranton, Pennsylvania have been challenged by an arts group to turn the ugly craters in their neighborhood into pothole art”. – Caters News. Photo: Cereal bowl pothole. (Photo by Caters News)

This artwork created using the end of a drill is the work of Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner who captures the flight of paint in just one 40,000th of a second. His latest Black Hole series celebrates the physics of centripetal force and the effects it has on simple paint and a an ordinary drill with a metal rod connected on the end. The incredible result of Fabians work comes out looking like a picture taken on the Hubble Telescope of some cosmic event. (Photo by Fabian Oefner/Caters News)

Members of the Communist New Fourth Army on parade. Note how the modern equipment contrasts with the shoeless soldiers in the foreground. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 6th July 1946

Choristers from a Norwegian choir on a visit to New York take photographs in Times Square. (Photo by Vecchio/Three Lions/Getty Images). Circa 1956