Cold War Clicks: My Soviet Camera’s Second Chance
Today’s post is about ancient technology and nostalgia. If you’re allergic to either, I suggest you skip it, and I’ll owe you one.
Inspired by
’s love for vintage film cameras, I decided to dust off the Soviet Zenit 12 camera my father brought with us to America from the USSR in 1979.
He purchased it in Minsk in 1978 with money we had to spend before emigrating (we were only allowed to take 100 rubles per person with us). He also bought two rosewood chess sets and several ties with Brezhnev’s face on them. The plan was to sell these items in America and use the money for a down payment on a house.
Things didn’t turn out quite as expected. We managed to sell the chess boards to the sleazy owner of a cheesy deli in Brooklyn and gave away the ties as Christmas presents. But nobody wanted that camera.
My father had no real interest in photography, and I certainly wasn’t interested in using the Zenit. We were in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Minolta, baby. Or at the very least, a Nikon or Canon. Why settle for a hamburger when you could have a steak?
The Zenit lived in storage for 45 years until I finally took it out for a test drive two weeks ago. Built like a tank and weighing almost as much, the Zenit 12, first introduced in 1977, was produced by KMZ (Krasnogorsk Mechanical Works) in the Soviet Union. Cleaning it up, I felt a wave of nostalgia and regret—this camera hadn’t witnessed any of our family’s journey: from our first days in the U.S. to birthdays, holidays, victories, defeats, and everything in between. But it could have. And how!
I loaded it with a roll of 200 ASA Kodak film and headed out to see how it would hold up in today’s world of high-tech gadgets. Shooting with it wasn’t easy—everything about the Zenit 12 demands patience. You need to focus manually, set the exposure manually, and there’s no instant gratification like you get with digital. But in a way, that slowness was a breath of fresh air. It forced me to really think about each shot.
As the film struggled through the gears of that old Soviet machine, I realized it wasn’t just about the pictures – it was about reconnecting with a piece of my past. Sure, the Zenit didn’t exactly deliver museum-quality shots. But who expects a relic from the Cold War to? What it did give me was something more valuable: a reason to slow down, squint at the viewfinder, and appreciate the art of embracing life’s beautifully imperfect moments—even if they’re a little out of focus.
Folks from all over the world, mostly from the bowels of East Asia and the armpits of Eastern Europe, write emails to me every day, asking for my top 52 folk/pop/rock albums of all time. I’ve finally given in and put together a list.
My 52 desert island pop/rock/folk albums.
Not necessarily in this order. Yes, it reflects my age, but I can’t do shit about that.
Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Tom Waits: Small Change
Tom Waits: The Mule Variations
John Lee Hooker: It Serves You Right to Suffer
Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here
Radiohead: OK Computer
Frank Sintra: Sinatra at the Sands
King Crimson: Red
Stevie Wonder: Innervisions
The Beatles: Rubber Soul
The Beatles: Abbey Road
Talking Heads: Remain in Light
Leonard Cohen: The Future
Bruce Springsteen: Tunnel of Love
Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town
Elvis Costello: This Year’s Model
Sting: Soul Cages
Nina Simone: Wild Is the Wind
Nick Drake: Pink Moon
The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead
U2: Achtung Baby
David Bowie: Station to Station
David Bowie: Low
Fela Kuti: Live!
Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral
Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Let Love In
Big Thief: Capacity
Johnny Cash: American Recordings
R.E.M.: Murmur
The Replacements: Tim
Auktyon: Girls Sing
Pretenders: Pretenders
Traffic: The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys
The Allman Brothers: Live at Fillmore East
The Strokes: Is This It
Tom Petty: Wildflowers
XTC: The Big Express
The Stooges: Fun House
The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP
Van Morrison: Moondance
Paul Simon: Graceland
The Cure: Disintegration
Kraftwerk: Trans Europa Express
Television: Marquee Moon
Bill Callahan: Blind Date Party
The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs
Alice in Chains: Jar of Flies
Manu Chao: Clandenisto
Thanks for reading and being a subscriber.
‘Til next time.
ak
I ain't nit pick your music list. Let's just say a fairly decent Venn diagram exists between us. A great family story to boot.
What a joy to be able to use a camera with such personal history. And some great albums on your list. A few would make mine too (Ok Computer, Remain in Light, Low, The Queen is Dead)!