Every year in Okayama, Japan, nearly 10,000 men take part in the Hadaka Matsuri, or Naked Festival at Saidaiji Temple. The men, dressed in Japanese loincloths, battle to grab a pair of lucky talismans thrown into the crowd by priests. Participants in the boisterous event are asked to prepare papers with their name, blood type and emergency contact number, and tuck them into their loincloths beforehand.

Every year, thousands of scientists come to Antarctica for research. For a dozen days in January, in the middle of the chilly Antarctic summer, the Associated Press, including photographer Natacha Pisarenko, followed scientists from different fields on the frozen continent.

Rebel fighters playfully adjust their uniforms during a beauty contest in Donetsk on March 7, 2015.

Female soldiers of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic wave backstage, during a beauty parade to mark International Women's Day in Donetsk on March 7, 2015.

Over the weekend in Ukraine's breakaway republic of Donetsk, self-proclaimed authorities celebrated International Women's Day by holding a beauty pageant. The contestants were all female soldiers fighting with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Women operating in a combat battalion of the self-proclaimed People Republic of Donetsk (DNR) stand to attention after taking part in a fashion show in Donetsk on March 7, 2015.

Women operating in combat battalions of the self-proclaimed People Republic of Donetsk pose for photographers in Donetsk on March 7, 2015.