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)

Tourists play at a beach covered by a thick layer of green algae in Qingdao, China, on July 3, 2013. A large quantity of non-poisonous green seaweed, enteromorpha prolifera, hit China's Qingdao coast last month. More than 20,000 tons of such seaweed has been removed from the city's beaches. This has now become an annual summer event. (Photo by Whitehotpix/ZumaPress.com)

Villagers offer flowers to a wild tusker, laying dead in a field in Panbari villagein Panbari village on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, Thursday, November 2, 2017. According to a veterinarian the tusker died of food poisoning. Scarcity of food and illegal encroachment of forest areas have forced these wild elephant to move to populated areas for food. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

Police officers detain a Navalny supporter during a protest in St. Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, February 2, 2021. A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to prison for more than 2 1/2 years on charges that he violated the terms of his probation while he was recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning. Navalny, who is the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, had earlier denounced the proceedings as a vain attempt by the Kremlin to scare millions of Russians into submission. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/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)

People dressed in costumes have a break while marching during the Vijanera Festival, in the small village of Silio, northern Spain, Sunday, January 3, 2016. 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 coloured clothing with its own complex function and symbolism and becoming the living example of the survival of archaic cults to nature. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

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)