A Maasai boy bites a bull's heart during an initiation into an age group ceremony near the town of Bisil, Kajiado county, Kenya, August 23, 2018. Thousands of Kenyan boys had a blessing of milk and beer sprayed on them as part of a rare Maasai ethnic community initiation ceremony to mark their passing into early manhood. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

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.

If life wasn’t exciting enough for these beautiful tortoises, they now get to wear a selection of fantastic knitted suits. They made a very slow sashay down the catwalk to showcase the talents of Katie Bradley. She has made cute woolly suits from 25 designs to transform the little animals into a shark, a lobster, a burrito, a burger, bumble bee and a birthday cake.

A boy looks back while he and another boy play on a Syrian military tank, destroyed during fighting with the Rebels, in the Syrian town of Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo, Sunday, September 2, 2012. (Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo)

A man runs on a small road in the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, before sunrise on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A brightly burning magnesium-rich meteor known as a bolide was captured near Bude, Cornwall on January 24, 2020. (Photo by Chris Small/Apex News)

Getting it done. Felicity, an athlete at an amateur weightlifting competition in a small local gym. (Photo by Clinton Bradbury/Women in Sport Photo Action Awards 2021)

A young boy lifts heavy bricks as he works at brick factory around Kathmandu valley. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)