Two years ago, Mark Rober was an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, part of a team that worked on the Curiosity rover. For Halloween, he strapped an iPad to his chest and another to his back. Then he turned them on and used the devices’ cameras and screens to make it appear as if he had a gaping hole in the middle of his torso. (Photo By Mark Rober)

A woman chops a fish at her stall as a train passes by at a morning market near Duri train station in Jakarta in this February 12, 2009 file photo. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

Firefighters pull a pig as they try to rescue it from a well at a pig farm in Huanghua township of Leqing, Zhejiang province, China, April 25, 2014. Seven local firefighters successfully rescued the 300 kg (661 lbs) pig, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A man poses in front of a portrait of late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong during the opening of an exhibition of Mao related art in Beijing, China, September 8, 2016. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (R) stands in front of Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as they arrive for U.S. President George W. Bush's annual State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington in this January 23, 2007 file photo. Hillary Clinton announced her second run for the presidency on April 12, 2015 starting her campaign as the Democrats' best hope of fending off a crowded field of lesser-known Republican rivals and retaining the White House. (Photo by Larry Downing/Reuters)

A girl uses her mobile phone during the evening at the National Park in Khartoum, Sudan, April 24, 2015. (Photo by Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)

In this January 24, 2017 photo, boxer Idamerys Moreno wraps a bandage on her hand before a training session at a sports center in Havana, Cuba. Boxing has long been an athletic engine for Cuba, which has won 72 Olympic medals in that category but women are not allowed to box. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.