Minimiam is a project of the Japanese photographer Akiko Ida and French photographer Pierre Javelle. They met studying photography at the Paris “Arts Décoratifs” art school. The project has been ongoing since 2002 and was inspired by the married couple’s profession as commercial food photographers.

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.

Migrants storm into a train at the Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, September 3, 2015 as Hungarian police withdrew from the gates after two days of blocking their entry. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

A member of a Chinese opera troupe applies make-up before performing at a shrine during the annual vegetarian festival in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 4, 2016. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A woman cries after her husband was shot dead by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles in Manila, Philippines late October 10, 2016. According to police reports, around 2,300 people have been killed in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war against illegal drugs. The figure was revised by the police from an original tally of around 3,600 deaths. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

German police officers take pictures as fireworks explode next to the Quadriga sculpture atop the Brandenburg gate during New Year celebrations in Berlin, Germany, January 1, 2017. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

An Indian nomadic shepherd from the western Rajasthan state guides his flock of sheep through an access road in Greater Noida, outskirts of New Delhi, India, Tuesday, December 5, 2017. Looking for suitable pasture lands for grazing, shepherds migrate their flocks over extensive areas in the same state or to neighboring states in India. (Photo by R.S. Iyer/AP Photo)

Yippie leader Jerry Rubin, barred on December 4, from House Un-American Activities subcommittee hearing, aims a toy gun in “self defense” outside the Washington hearing room on December 5, 1969. Rubin showed up in his Santa Clause suit because he believed it was typical of the committee which, he said, “is a total circus”. (Photo by Bob Daugherty/AP Photo)