South Korean military soldiers take part in the South Korea and U.S. joint military exercise to commemorate the 63th Korea Armed Forces Day at the Seungjin firing drill ground on September 30, 2011 in Pocheon, South Korea. The exercise is intended to prepare the South Korean defence force for any potential action from North Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A statue by Maurizio Cattelan is displayed at the Milan Stock Exchange on July 26, 2011 in Milan, Italy. Italian pig farmers, who are members of the Coldiretti Italian Farmers Association, are protesting against unfair competition from foreign farmers. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

For his Behind a Little House Project Italian photographer Manuel Cosentino found an unsuspecting muse: a tiny nondescript house on an unexceptional hill. He returned to photograph the small building from the exact same location for nearly two years in order to capture the dramatic changes in weather and light that utterly changed the scenery just beyond the horizon

Diana Silva, representing Distrito Capital state, is crowned the winner of the annual Miss Venezuela beauty pageant in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, November 17, 2022. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

The #8 DP Starworks Motorsports Ford Rley driven by Enzo Potolicchio, Ryan Dalziel, Alex Popow, Lucas Luhr and Allan McNish runs off the track during the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway on January 28, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images)

A giant chrome brushed aluminium skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex) dinosaur , made by French sculptor and painter Philippe Pasqua, stands at the pier of riverboat company Bateaux-Mouches in Paris, with the Eiffel tower in the background.

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.