Happiness on a Rainy Day by Fardin Oyan, Bangladesh. Winner of the young environmental photographer of the year. Many children in Bangladesh love to bathe and play in the rain. The country, which is flat and occupied by the huge Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, is exposed to floods, especially during monsoon season. (Photo by Fardin Oyan/2018 Ciwem environmental photographer of the year 2018)

Picture dated October 8th, 2022 shows Patrouille Suisse, the official Swiss Air Force jet aerobatic display team flying at Duxford Flying Finale in Cambridgeshire, the final airshow of the season. (Photo by Caroline Haycock/Bav Media)

A giant devil figure burns during the annual celebration of the “Burning of the Devil”, a festivity associated with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception that honours the city's patron saint and marks the start of the Christmas season, at Colonia Arrivillaga in Guatemala City, Guatemala on December 7, 2024. (Photo by Cristina Chiquin/Reuters)

A view of the silhouettes of people, passing across a bridge over the frozen Lake Murat, trying to go on their daily lives despite the cold during winter season in Agri, Turkiye on February 10, 2025. (Photo by Abdullah Soylemez/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Murad Khydyrov, horse and monkey trainer at the Great Moscow State Circus, and chimpanzee named Micky get ready for a rehearsal of the show called “History” as the circus prepares for its new season, which is to begin on September 19, in Moscow on September 17, 2020. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)

Indian girls apply colored powder on each other as they wear protective masks as a precautionary measure against coronavirus, during Holi festival celebrations in Bhopal, India, 26 March 2021. Holi marks the beginning of the spring season. Holi will be celebrated as the Hindu spring festival of colors across the country on 29 March. (Photo by Sanjeev Gupta/EPA/EFE)

The Kazakhs are the descendants of Turkic, Mongolic and Indo-Iranian tribes and Huns that populated the territory between Siberia and the Black Sea. They are a semi-nomadic people and have roamed the mountains and valleys of western Mongolia with their herds since the 19th century. The ancient art of eagle hunting is one of many traditions and skills that the Kazakhs have, in recent decades, been able to hold on to. They rely on their clan and herds, believing in pre-Islamic cults of the sky, the ancestors, fire and the supernatural forces of good and evil spirits.

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.