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[vriad_lee]

this is a follow-up to the previous vintage picture post. i forgot to mention that i've been buying these photos at a flea-market from two sots. today it rained and all their photos got wet, so they dumped them in a garbage containter, poor souls.

Comments

[stillcarl]

I'm always amazed by how similar old photos from Russia can look to those from here. (Meaning the domestic ones.) Whether posed or casual, it's all very similar.

Oh, and someone did a family history which slightly touched on us, and there were quite a lot of photos of sidecars. They must've been popular for a while there.

[vriad_lee]

don't you have sidecars now? i saw one the other day - although of course they are very few now. also, i didn't notice that old photos from russia and 'west' look similar? on the contrary, i thought that some expressions and conditions are very specific, like for example:

http://www.grasshopper-toys.com/livejournal/4/vintage_photos_7jul7.jpg

http://www.grasshopper-toys.com/livejournal/4/vintage_photos_7jul10.jpg

http://www.grasshopper-toys.com/livejournal/4/vintage_photos_7jul3.jpg

[stillcarl]

We hardly have motorbikes now, or at least not in my part of NZ. The young here go for fast cars.

I was thinking more of the clothing and the look of what's in the background than expressions. Thrown together clothing and fences and such more knocked up than built. Anyway, scanned one old picture...

http://carrea.freehostia.com/net/oldpic.jpg

which doesn't quite convey what I mean, but will have to do for now. It'd be from the early 40s.

[ryedeer]

You can hardly see a bike with sidecar in Moscow (there are mostly Japanese ones), but there are lots of them in "province". People who cannot afford even an old car tend to use the same old Russian bikes (Ural and Izh) as their "working horses".

The bike on the first photo seems to be "Ural" or "Dnipro" -- it is the Russian clone of a pre-WWII BMW model. By the way, they are manufactured here even now with almost unchanged design :)

[vriad_lee]

so we stole their bikes too! i knew about cameras - my zenit-s is a leika clone.

[stillcarl]

I had a discussion with emma_loy a while back about a photo of a Russian car, and research showed it to be of German origin too. I can't remember the car's name now though.

But then they did try to steal your land, so... ;-)

[ryedeer]

Btw, one of the most popular Russian cars, VAZ-2101 (also known as Zhiguli), is a copy of 70's FIAT.

[stillcarl]

The founder of Sony in his book "Made in Japan" used that as an example of why a company shouldn't licence their products! Meaning it was a bad move from Fiat's POV. (An 'if my memory serves me right' comment. It's been a long time since I read the book.)

[ryedeer]

As far as I know, the first Leica's clone was FED :)

Btw, I didn't know Leica ever produced SLR cameras: I thought they were always stuck to rangefinder ones...

[vriad_lee]

oh, clone in appearance only http://members.tripod.com/rick_oleson/index-9.html now that i read it carefully. but they did do SLRs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leica#R_.28SLR.29_series

[stillcarl]

In New Zealand, before the Japanese bikes caught on, British bikes were the most popular here. Namely Triumph and BSA, and no doubt some others. Plus American Indians. And dirt-track, speedway racing was very popular when I was a kid too, with NZ producing three world champions.

Oh yeah, they still race sidecars here. See the gallery.

[vriad_lee]

well, clothing, maybe. i've never seen anything close to russian shabbiness in western photos (not that've seen much on dialup)
nice picture!

[stillcarl]

You might find a similar shabbiness in Depression-era photos.

Oh, and down here they've put a huge number of old school photos online. See...

http://www.oldfriends.co.nz/ (It's a kind of social network. Click on a region and then choose a school with lots of members.)

It's kinda fun to see the changes in clothing and school uniforms over the years, not to mention hairstyles. (And it shouldn't be too slow on dialup.) Oh, and NZers are known for going barefoot, so amuse yourself looking out for the barefoot kids. More likely to be seen in the older photos. 'tis choice, not poverty!

[vriad_lee]

cool photos! which is the oldest educational institution in nz?

[stillcarl]

This one, it seems: http://www.wesley.school.nz/

Photos (here: http://www.oldfriends.co.nz/school/Wesley-College/10487.htm ) but they're only from the 40s onward.