Triplet sisters Natalia, Irina and Tatiana Mironenko attend a rehearsal while preparing for examination performances staged by the graduates of the folk dance faculty of the Krasnoyarsk choreographic college in Krasnoyarsk, Russia May 13, 2019. All three 19-year-old sisters are expected to join the renowned Krasnoyarsk state academic dance ensemble of Siberia after the graduation. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

In this November 3, 2019, photograph a child with Down syndrome jokingly gestures to the audience while presenting ponchos displaying drawings inspired by children, during a fashion show dubbed “heART Couture” in Bucharest, Romania.Children with Down syndrome staged a fashion show and performed along a ballet ensemble, two milestone events for the inclusion of people with disabilities in Romania's social life, 30 years after the fall of communism following a violent uprising at the end of 1989. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Protesters dressed as cows march during a demonstration outside of the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 12, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. Tens of thousands of protestors staged a massive demonstration outside of the Wisconsin State Capitol one day after Gov. Scott Walker signed his controversial budget repair bill into law.

A child, from Municipal school Parana, poses during the project “Fencing School” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 30, 2016. Children in Rio de Janeiro lift their sights and their swords to new idols, as a round of fencing workshops takes to public schools. The International Fencing Federation, together with the Brazilian and state federations, will reach 40 public schools in March and April. The aim is to whip up a following for the Olympic sport, little known in the soccer-mad nation, as Rio sets the stage for the Summer Games in August. (Photo by Sergio Moraes/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.

“Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio”. – Wikipedia

Photo: American-Chinese actress Anna May Wong wearing an Oriental-style costume and headdress. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images). Circa 1935

Alex Prager is an American art photographer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her photographs primarily use staged actors, models and extras to create “meticulously designed mise en scène”, often described as film-like and hyperreal. “Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive” is at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, 15 June – 14 October 2018. Here: The Big Valley, Susie and Friends, 2008. (Photo by Alex Prager Studio/Lehmann Maupin Gallery)

“The Guinness World Records has consistently listed Sherlock Holmes as the “most portrayed movie character” with 75 actors playing the part in over 211 films. Holmes' first screen appearance was in the Mutoscope film Sherlock Holmes Baffled in 1900, albeit in a barely-recognisable form”. – Wikipedia

Photo: William Gillette as the lead in a stage production of “Sherlock Holmes”, at the Lyceum Theatre. Playwright: William Gillette, Arthur Conan Doyle (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 9th September 1901