A man dressed as a “Trapajon”, representing entities of nature, poses for a picture after taking part in the Vijanera Festival in Silio, northern Spain, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. The Vijanera masquerade, of pre-Roman origin, is the first carnival of the year in Europe symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and involving the participation of crowds of residents wearing different masks, animal skins and brightly colored clothing with its own complex function and symbolism and becoming the living example of the survival of archaic cults to nature. (Photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP Photo)

People take photos during the Loy Krathong festival which is held as a symbolic apology to the goddess of the river in Chiang Mai, Thailand, November 19, 2021. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/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.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man holds a chicken before he performs the Kaparot ritual, where white chickens are slaughtered as a symbolic gesture of atonement, ahead of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement in Bnei Brak, Israel in Bnei Brak October 9, 2016. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

A worker displays paper pandas created by French artist Paulo Grangeon in front of the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 4, 2016. The exhibit is part of the World Wide Fund's project where the 1600 paper pandas symbolize the last pandas still present in nature.(Photo by Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo)

An artist applies henna on the hand or a woman during the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, November 4, 2021. Millions of people across Asia are celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali, which symbolizes new beginnings and the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness. (Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP Photo)

A person smokes marijuana as marijuana enthusiasts mark the informal annual cannabis holiday, 4/20 (four-twenty), corresponding to the numerical figure widely recognized within the cannabis subculture as a symbol for all things related to marijuana, in Hyde Park in London, Britain on April 20, 2023. (Photo by Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters)

A protester holds up a symbolic chain as the trial of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak continues on February 16, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)