A copper plated Oscar statuette is run through a series of chemical baths at Epner Technology in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, January 17, 2017. Every Oscar fist-pumped or tearfully cradled by Academy Award winners is first cast, buffed and fussed over by people far from Hollywood who have spent the last several months making 60 identical gold Oscars for the Feb. 26th awards. (Photo by Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

A cat sits in front of a retro car owned by retired mechanic Mikhail Krasinets at an open-air museum of Soviet-era vehicles in the village of Chernousovo, Tula region, Russia on September 27, 2018. In the remote village of Chernousovo, retired mechanic Mikhail Krasinets tends to more than 300 ramshackle, Soviet-era cars, remnants of a once vibrant auto industry that crumbled with the fall of the Soviet Union. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Norway's Karsten Warholm celebrates winning the men's 400m hurdles at the Diamond League in London, July 21, 2018. (Photo by Andrew Boyers/Action Images via Reuters)

Chinese-American actress Bai Ling attends “The Key” screening at The Real Experimental Film Festival at Laemmle's Music Hall on November 21, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Barry King/WireImage)

A model poses at the Le Silla Spring/Summer 2012 presentation as part Milan Womenswear Fashion Week on September 23, 2011 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Vincenzo Lombardo/Getty Images for Le Silla)

Gifts for the homeless are handed out during Santa Bar Crawl, Oxford, England on December 5, 2017. Here: Oxford university students on a Santa-themed pub crawl. (Photo by Greg Blatchford/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Miss Colombia 2015 Ariadna Gutierrez rehearses for the upcoming Miss Universe telecast while at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, December 12. 2015. (Photo by Darren Decker/Reuters/The Miss Universe Organization)

Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.

Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)