Moscow feels open again. And, it‘s Summer. Winter feels closed here anyway.
Like a long wait for something desperately trying to happen. You have faith that one will pass and the other will take its place. But your faith has no point. Change will always come.
The dead cars in the neighbourhood become interesting in Summer. The snow and frost is gone and I can spy their strange abandoned contents. It has become a small obsession.
The wee one‘s eye played up. It wouldn‘t open for the doctor. There were screams. Screams calmed by bribery. So, a trip to the kiosk. All the dolls went unnoticed. More cars are needed for the collection.
At least it‘s not a dinosaur. I am so bored of the dinosaurs. They are dead. Forgotten things from the past. When the doctor’s salve needs to go on there are more screams and bribery.
And meanwhile people do what people do. As it should be.
Live for we are a long time dead. Like those dinosaurs.
Maybe some future kid plays obsessively with plastic versions of us in the ever changing dystopia.
Zenit E / Asahi Super Takumar 50mm 1.4 / Fomapan 400 / Fujifilm Superia 400
Moscow July 2020.
He can be king until 2036 if the peasants say yes. So, all the proles are let out of lockdown. But travels to foreign shores are still not possible. Where can we go?
We drive out of Moscow to the concrete Oblast and beyond to the fly ridden flatlands. Through towns of Babushkas and Dog lovers.
The Dacha. Hot. Sticky.
I have a cold. I sneeze and splutter and leak snot. It’s not THE virus. Of course just now noone is sure. The flies don’t care. Blood is blood is blood. They leave bites on my body. Two nights of feasting. We drive on.
Through town and country past and more Babushkas and good capatalists and once we were communist.
…and come to a resort hotel.
With animateurs. Russian style. The food in the Stolovar is passable but entirely unexciting. I try the wine and a long history of viniculture turns slowly in it’s grave. But mostly we are room ridden with our virus for company. We all have it now.
Humans and other animals. Some wear masks and some do not. And these Russians sometimes sport Ukranian bling.
The holiday is over. We drive home.
Past dead petrol stations through creeping traffic all headed for the centre of their universe, but never really finding it. Our Moscow flat feels like the height of civilisation. Sleep. Recover. Sleep Recover.
During lockdown we took a couple of trips up to Lake Seliger. It‘s about 5 hours from Moscow in the direction of St Petersburg. I haven‘t been out of Moscow very much since getting here a year and a half ago. But after these trips I can say it really is worth exploring rural Russia. Ostashkov / Осташков is the largest town by the lake. There isn‘t much else there other than some small villages and a large monastry (Nilo-Stolobenskaya Pustyn‘ / Нило-столобенская пустынь) which is something of a pilgramage site for orthodox christians.
Ostashkov must have been a real pearl when it was built in the 1800s. It has beautiful architecture in its centre and you can see that once it was a prosperous place. Years of communism and then the corrupt recent government have not been kind to it unfortunately. Russians don‘t really appreciate some of the cultural heritage they have. Which is strange given their strong nationalism. Most of the old buildings could easily disappear altogether if someone doesn‘t take action. Some have been renovated and are cared for. But the delapidation does add a special and unique atmosphere to the place. The lake itself is big and quite beautiful with some great areas of solitude and nature. There be bears here!
It looks like Russia is making moves to relax its ridiculous Visa program. Hopefully more tourists coming and their Euros/Dollars will motivate the locals into caring better for places like this.
I took some pictures on expired film. The black and white film (Ilford and AGFA) expired in the mid 80s and early 90s. The colour (Kodak Porta) expired around 2011. I used my Zeiss Superikonta A 530. A 4.5 by 6 folding camera made in the 1930s.
In Moscow we have been living in lockdown for nearly 3 months – and tomorrow they will lift most of the restrictions. I arrived here mid March and they locked Moscow down about a week later. It‘s been a strange ride.
I left a Switzerland quickly going into lockdown. It felt apocalyptic. I was on the last normal Moscow flight from Zürich. Geneva Moscow stayed open for another week. The airport felt fairly normal to be honest. Maybe a slight air of nervousness about people when it became difficult to social distance. Maybe a tenth of people were wearing masks. The flight was full. All returning Russians as far as I could see – apart from me. But normally the flight is like this.
When I got to Moscow I was expecting checks of some kind coming in. But there was nothing. I caught the train into town and while going down escalators to the metro managed to rip my arm open by slipping as I was going down the stairs. My backpack tipped my balance over as I ran. My hand was cut and bleeding and further up I had bloody trails from the metal escalator stairs embedded into my arm. I still have the marks now. It‘s nothing to do with lockdown of course. But it stuck in my mind and perhaps enhanced my feeling of vulnerability.
Over my first week back it was still possible to eat in restaurants, cafes and bars. They had socially distanced the tables in some places. I could still go to the photo shop that develops my films. It felt like a fragile normality. By this time Switzerland had largely closed down. And then on the Sunday night, the city closed the parks. I run through the park opposite our block every evening and I had to change my usual route. They also taped off all the children‘s playgrounds and benches in the streets. By Wednesday we were in full lockdown with all restaurants, cafes and bars shut. Forewarned I had a haircut the day before. The situation felt very dystopian. I felt angry and have the opinion the measures were pure folly and still feel that opinion now.
Moscow went very quiet that week and for several weeks afterwards. Technically, unless you were an essential worker, you would be fined for leaving the house. Digital QR codes were introduced that could be ordered online if you needed to go anywhere. We stayed mainly at home going out each day for a coffee and a croissant or to buy food. Our favourite cafe and some other places started doing takeaway. I still ran every night – just not my usual route. I saw plenty of police but they never bothered me. In fact unless I went up to the underground, which went from being a hub of activity to complete desertion, it was hard to notice anything was very different.
We live in a fairly posh part of Moscow and I think the police didn‘t bother enforcing so strongly here incase they pulled up someone connected to someone with influence and got themselves into trouble. On nice days people walked around quite freely and there were even queues at the places doing takeaway. Apparently the government had installed a facial recognition system which automatically sent out fines or caused a police response. I heard tales of it, but never saw evidence of it first hand.
We ordered the QR code and made a couple of drives for groceries to a big shopping centre a couple of miles away which had a large Auchan in it. It really felt like an adventure. The roads, normally packed, were definitely quieter. But Auchan was incredibly busy. I‘d seen empty shelf pictures from the UK. But here there was no sign of shortages or panic buying.
We were also up in the centre of town near red square once. It was eerily quiet. Almost nothing open and very few people in the street. And another day we travelled to one of the tall concrete block suburbs of Moscow to collect an official document we needed. Anyone who was in the street there was wearing a mask and gloves in total compliance with the government orders. And the office we visited checked your temperature on the way in. A lot of people live in these suburbs, but it was very quiet. So everyone was certainly sitting at home in the pokey little flats stacked high into the skies around us.
In Russia a lot of people have a second home. It‘s called the Dacha. It‘s a bit like an allotment in the UK. Normally it‘s a rudimentary building set in a small garden. But they can also be quite sophisticated, very comfortable luxurious houses in a park. I find this phenomenon very strange. The government allowed QR codes for people wanting to visit their Dachas. So, we took advantage of it three times, renting an AirBNB by a lake five hours drive out of Moscow. It was very beautiful and a something new in my Russia experience. This far out, apart from closed restaurants and bars, it really was very hard to notice the lockdown. Hardly anybody wore masks and life appeared to be continuing normally. It was a good break for us to clear our mainly house bound heads and reset a bit. We found the small cafes in the monasteries were open. Of course we took advantage. It felt like an amazing treat.
There were quite a few strange inconsistencies reported during lockdown. The QR codes caused massive queues at the Metros for the first couple of days until they decided to abandon checking them at the Metro entrance. One day they decided to allow all massage parlours and beauty shops to open. But the mayor said you could be fined for going. Putin also declared the lockdown as a national period of non working. Like some kind of holiday.
Flatbound I try to record new music, but find surprisingly little time to do it. It‘s hard for me working on music when I am with people. I need to disappear into my zone for at least 3 hours at a time. I have managed to at least start the next record with one song put down and another nearly finished. I tried to make croissants. But they were more like something between a doughy blob and shortbread. I have had some success with my resolution to do free standing handstands though. I need a wall next to me for security, but a quarter of the time I am pulling them off without it. I just need to get up to nearly 100% then I can start doing them away from the wall. And I have kept taking pictures on film: around the flat; in the neighbourhood; on our escapes. I managed to get the colour chemistry to develop them too.
And, so life has been thus for nearly three months. Putin has an important constitutional change that the people must vote on. His approval rating is dropping to it‘s lowest ever in his 20 years in power. So, suddenly, even though all the evidence points to no real easing up of Corona reinfections, they have lifted most of the restrictions and presented a clear plan for lifting the rest of the measures. I‘m happy. I find the lockdown illogical and more damaging than the virus. I don‘t want to explain my logic behind that here though. Just to throw a little light on how life has been during these strange weeks of lockdown for me here in Russia.
I still ache to go on a long solo road trip in my MGB, but at least the lockdown has finally lifted. We can breathe a little easier. The Moscow summer has started too and its people are out in the streets. In two weeks we can even eat dinner in a restaurant. We plan to go straight to Hachapuri. Things will feel normal. I can‘t leave yet. I need to be sure I can get a Visa which lets me back in again before I can leave. So the road trip must wait.
Here’s a small selection of my film photos from the time. Taken on a Contax T, a Olympus XA, a Bessa R2S and my favourite: the Zeiss Superikonta A 530.
Sheremetova Airport, empty shortly before lockdown
Metro shortly before lockdown
Metro before Lockdown
Metro, shortly before lockdown
Metro, shortly before lockdown
Moscow cafe, just before lockdown. Tables socially distanced.
Shortly before lockdown, busy streets.
Hamovniki Moscow, shortly before Lockdown
Snowy Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Moscow Hamovniki benches blocked off, Lockdown
Our local grocery store was rather quiet during lockdown suprisingly. The larger Auchan was packed. I should have taken a photo.
Workies not quite socially distancing, Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Moscow Mitino, Lockdown
Moscow street during lockdown. Normally jammed.
Wet Streets Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Towards Gagarinski from Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
One of the few mask wearers Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Typical Russian with his plastic bag, Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Hungry Pigeons after my croissant, Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Me by the river, Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Moscow Business Centre, Lockdown
Wet and bumpy road to Seliger
House by Lake Seliger
Fisherman’s Armchair, Lake Seliger
Birds Lake Seliger
Lake Seliger
Woman half in half out at the monastry near Pereslavl-Zalesskiy
Ladas parked in Pereslavl-Zalesskiy
Birds at the lake by Pereslavl-Zalesskiy
By the lake at Pereslavl-Zalesskiy
My recording gear
Our back yard Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Colourful women, Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Hints of summer Hamovniki Moscow, Lockdown
Inside my MG… now sitting in a garage the last 3 months 3000 miles away….
I have quite a lot of cameras collected over 10 years and this is my favourite.
I love middle format. But the square 6 by 6 format is not quite right for my taste. My eye has grown up with the typical 3 by 2 that nearly every modern photograph has. I do have 2 6 by 9 cameras: one folder and a Fujica 690. Somehow 6 by 9 as a format doesn‘t quite work for me – and it only has 8 shots on a roll. I always wanted to try out either 6 by 7 or 6 by 4.5 but never stumbled upon an affordable camera with that format until I found a small Zeiss folder in a junk shop. It was 70 Swiss Francs. I played around with it and liked it‘s ergonomics. But ultimately held off buying it until researching a little more.
Zeiss made middle format folding cameras from the late 1920s up to the 1950s. I already have two of their 6 by 6s – a Nettar and a more modern Super Ikonta. The Nettar was a budget camera with a lower quality lense. The Super Ikontas tend to have rangefinders and a better lense quality. You can pick these cameras up relatively cheap and the best thing is they can fit in your pocket. Taking a middle format camera like a Rolleiflex or a Hasselblad around with you can be a bit of a pain to be honest – and they are expensive. But middle format folding cameras are even more portable than many small format cameras and suprisingly durable. The three I have from Zeiss and the one from Voigtländer are all over 60 years old, light tight and working.
When I went back to the shop, the folder I wanted had been sold. So, I hunted online and found a good looking Zeiss Super Ikonta A 530 complete with it‘s original leather case on eBay for 100 Euros. It soon arrived from Austria in perfect working condition.
It looks beautiful. If you did want to leave it on a shelf, it really makes a nice ornament. Of course I want to shoot film with it. This one‘s over 80 years old. From a bit of research it was made between 1930 and 1937, pre WW2.
It has a coupled rangefinder, but you use a seperate viewer to find your range. Mine is very accurate with focus. The patch is not the easiest to use in some lighting situations, but it‘s OK.
The lense is a Carl Zeiss Jena 7cm Tessar 3.5 which stops down to 32. Good quality old lenses like these have a special look that I really like. The lens is uncoated which can make shooting into the sun a bit hit and miss. I‘m trying to find a hood and a coated uv filter for mine. Wide open it can be rather soft, but this doesn‘t bother me too much. The middle to smaller apertures are nice and sharp.
The Compur shutter goes from 1 second to 1/300 and has Bulb and T settings. So, it‘s quite useable for most situations. The shutter speeds on mine seem accurate enough. It has a cable trigger socket on the shutter.
There is a socket for a tripod. It‘s the old style of thread, so maybe you need an 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch adapter. They are easy to find online.
There is no way to connect a flash. The camera has no light meter. There is no mechanism that stops multiple exposures.
I had a problem winding the film at first. I was guessing how far to wind it. I know 6 x 4.5 should give me 16 shots a 120 roll and I was only getting about 12. So I found a tip for this on a forum somewhere:
There are two film viewholes on the back of the camera. You should wind the film until 1 appears in the left (1st) window, take your shot, then wind until 1 appears in the right (2nd) window, take your shot, then wind until 2 appears in the first window… and so on until your last shot with 8 in the 2nd window. This gives perfect spacing and 16 shots on a roll. Seems obvious once you know it.
I‘ve had mine for about 4 months and lately it‘s all I want to use. I like to take it everywhere with me. I don‘t see me ever wanting to sell this camera. Amongst all the over priced Hasselblads, Rolleiflexes, Leicas and Contax Ts this is a real find. If you see one that works at a good price, grab it!
Finally I get round to writing a wee bit on the Contax T.
Firstly, I think this camera is really great.
Before I got sucked into shooting middle format, I went on a bit of a point and shoot trip. I was looking for a small pocketable camera for street photography. I started the journey when my Yashica t5 started annoying me because it regularly missed focus. The Yashica is a great camera by the way, but like almost every camera there are pros and cons.
I think in cameras for candid street photography you need a small camera with full manual control. The Contax T has all that apart from the shutter speed. It is incredibly difficult to find a compact film camera that allows you to set shutter speed and aperture. I think the Rollei 35 is the only one and I did see there is a very rare Soviet version of the Lomo LCA. I cannot understand why full manual is so uncommon. It‘s possible in slightly larger cameras but not in these tiny compacts. So… minus 1 for the Contax T.
Unfortunately the Contax T has been caught up in the hype of it‘s trendy big sisters, the T2 and T3. Those cameras are selling for prices way beyond their real value. And both of those have autofocus which given my problems with my Yashica I don’t want. I managed to find my Contax for about 200 Euros on Ebay with a beautiful original box, owners manual, small very 80s looking leather case and a flash unit. It sold as untested, so I took the risk. 200 Euros is the low end of what you‘ll pay for a Contax T. They can go for up to 500 at time of writing. When it came the flash unit had been damaged by a leaky battery, but when I cleaned it up the unit started working perfectly.
It is a very solid feeling camera. Ergonomically I like how it feels in the hand. The flip down drawbridge that lets the lens out is on the quirky side (Olympus XA‘s clam shell is a far better solution imo). And it has a very useable rangefinder for focusing. The ISO can be set from 50 to 800. I do wish it gave me an extra click to 1600 as I nearly always push my 400 black and white film 2 stops.
The Contax is very simple to use. Choose your aperture, focus, shoot. The film wind feels a little bit fragile, but I also prefer it to the autowind on the Yashica which is quite noisy in a quiet place. The shutter is a very quiet click.
Mine seems to have a small problem that occurs every so often. I‘m not sure if it‘s only when I shoot in cold conditions. The shutter opens but doesn‘t close until you wind to the next frame and take that shot. Thus I lose two frames to overexposure. Rather annoying and I don‘t know if anyone else has the problem. It could be something to do with the battery draining in cold weather.
The gem in this camera is it‘s lens. This is why I still like this camera over the Olympus XA. It takes such sharp and for my taste perfectly contrasted pictures with both colour and monochrome film. I really think the XA beats this camera in many areas but not the lens quality. Yes – rather an important part of any camera.
I‘d be happy just to shoot with this camera on a long trip. I think it scrapes into my top 3 cameras to be honest. If you‘re looking for a great film compact, I recommend it.
If you follow this site you’ll notice I‘ve been drifting down the route of compact cameras recently in my never ending hunt for the perfect street photography camera. And generally to motivate me to take more pictures smaller seems to be the best: A camera I can always have with me in my pocket.
My real desire is for a small compact that lets me select shutter speed and aperture. Yes the Rollei 35 does this, but the ergonomics of the Rollei just do not work for me. And, so… I decide to try an Olympus XA which is aperture priority.. There are different models of XA, but I opt for the most manual one. I can zone focus the XA and accurately focus it with a rangefinder patch. Plus manually set the ISO which allows me to push my films up to 800. The later models (XA1, XA2, XA3 etc…) get more automated and don’t let you select aperture which rules them out for me.
So, I`m in Moscow… there is a cool website here called Avito.ru. I find a guy selling one and head out to the suburbs and pick one up for just over 100 Euros. At today‘s prices it‘s decent. We meet in a crappy burger king in an immigrant worker ghetto, I check it out, and, the camera works perfectly. Bingo. Deal done.
I adore this camera for it‘s street shooting ergonomics. It‘s small and very discreet. A truly pocketable camera. It‘s not point and shoot: you need to set the focus. It works out the shutter speed for you, which can make shooting from the hip very hit and miss unfortunately, but gone is the problem I had with my Yashica T5 grabbing the wrong focus. The lense isn‘t as good as the Yashica but is still capable of some gorgeous shots. There is a little focus lever just under the lense and although the rangefinder patch is a little dull I was able to get some good sharp pictures in low light.
Is it the best camera for street? It comes very very close. After buying this camera my itch was not completely scratched. I still felt I wanted the higher quality lense of the Yashica and sourced a Contax T with it‘s quality Zeiss (review coming). And, after shooting with the Contax T for a while inspite of it‘s obviously higher quality, I really think the discreetness of the XA make it a better camera for street, although the Contax is more ‘sticky‘ in the hands. I am much more comfortable pulling out the XA and taking a closeup shot of someone than with the Contax. And that‘s the decider I guess. And, as the Contax T gets caught in the hype of the much vaunted T2 and T3, you can get an XA for at least half the price.
It has a neat clam shell opening system which feels very natural to use. I don‘t like the shutter button. It‘s on the plasticy side and sometimes hard to tell if you took a picture. Also it‘s hair trigger sensitive. A slight touch and you‘ll fire the shutter. Positive though is the shutter sound. It‘s very quiet. A gentle click only audible in a very quiet environment. I‘d feel comfortable shooting in a church with this to be honest. I like the manual wind. It‘s a dial rather than a lever. Not to everyone‘s tatste probably.
So, the specs:
35mm 2.8f lense
225 grammes
True Rangefinder
Aperture Priority (2.8 – 22)
Needs two small hearing aid batteries for the light meter.
What more can I say? I really recommend this camera. I shot about five rolls through it before getting hooked on my Contax T, and it definitely fits me well. The photos came out well. I‘d quite like to find a flash unit for it, but they are suprisingly rare and expensive. It‘s a keeper. I know I‘m going to drift back to it quite soon.
I got to this camera by way of the cheaper Zeiss Ikon Nettar. I took the Nettar on a trip recently and got great photos from it. Finally a middle format without the added bulkiness and weight. The thing I missed most though was having a coupled rangefinder for focusing. On the Nettar you have to guess the focus distance. So, I decided to go for the heavier but still relatively slimline deluxe model.
It’s a really great camera. But at first I thought something was up with the film advance as my first film came out with the pictures all badly spaced to the point of the first 6 shots being completely unusable and not even on the film.
A bit of research gave me some hints on how to avoid this.
I think the biggest thing to watch is how you load your film. This camera has a mechanism to prevent double exposure. It means the little red film number window is useless.
1. Before closing the back, make sure you advance the film sufficiently to ensure the start arrow on the film back lines up with the white dot inside the camera.
2. Then when you close the camera, engage the film lock button before advancing the film.
I also found some tips on the internet that suggested the films Zeiss made for the camera were thicker than the usual films which contributed to the spacing problem. They suggested putting a 2 inch length of gaffa tape on the paper backing just before the tapered end.
I’m not actually sure if the gaffa tape is making the correction. I suspect loading the film correctly is having the bigger effect. I tried both loading the film correctly and the gaffa tape solution simultaneously and got perfectly spaced pictures on the negatives. So I am now loathe to test with just the correct film load,
Basically, if you’ve got film advance problems with this camera, chances are it’s not actually broken.
This is a great camera with a super lense on it. It’s very useable once you work out it’s quirks. It is super value for money just now. The Nettar is also great by the way if you want a real bargain and trully portable camera for middle format. I recommend them both.
So, I went back to the Floss again. That’s the river barge concert stage that happens for two weeks each year in Basel which this year is on land because it’s been so bloody wet. Again I managed to get there early and grab a good spot in front of the stage.
From my last shots I felt they were overexposed and after checking my exposure settings even without the development adjustment I had infact over exposed. My chart tells me a bright lit stage has an LV value of 9, whereas I was tempted to shoot for 6 on the last roll based on how bright I felt it was. Anyway, this time I took a roll of expired colour film, Kodak Portra 160VC. I think it expired in 2005. My exposures are much better. I just have to translate this to black and white film now. I would have preferred these shots in black and white, but the colour film is nice enough too.
Now, Chica Torpedo are a band playing Latin music with Swiss German lyrics sung and presumably written by Schmidi Schmidhauser. If you can imagine something between Carlos Santana and Zucchero fronted by a Swiss car mechanic you’re getting the picture. They have considerable charm as a band not least because of their real live Latin percussionist, Anselmo Torres. http://www.chicatorpedo.ch is where they’re at.
The Floss is a barge they float by the river bank in Basel for a fortnight every August. Then each night they have a free concert from a mix of local and lesser known international acts. It’s free, although the more altruistic amongst are given the opportunity of putting money in a large fishing net wielded by youngsters dressed as sailors. This year the water’s been too high so it’s been on land.
I’ve already been to a couple of Floss gigs this year, but underestimated their popularity and was too far away from the stage to even bother taking any photos. So, for Ira May I decided to head out earlier and grab a spot.
It was a nice gig of upbeat soul music, that will remind you a bit of Amy Winehouse and Duffy with the retro sound. Ira May’s a local singer fronting a tight band with a horn section. It went down very well with the packed crowd.
I shot a roll of Fujifilm Neopan 400 using my Zeiss Ikon Icarex and its waist level finder. I’m really liking this camera. I’ve recently learned that when shooting black and white I should expose for the shadows and knock about 20% from my development time. But unfortunately I just couldn’t believe I should knock that much time off and the shots came out a a couple of stops overexposed. Anyhow, next time, next time.
Where is Gordypops? 