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FOQUS Type-D 200 is a new 35mm black-and-white film from Russia

30 Aug

The team behind Russian company FOQUS has launched FOQUS 200, a new 35mm panchromatic black-and-white film described as having a fine grain, strong contrast, and
“pretty good tone range.” The film’s release was made possible by photography enthusiasts in Moscow, according to FOQUS, though it will ship anywhere with orders already available online.

FOQUS explains that Type-D is made entirely in Russia, and is not a repackaged product from Europe. In a blog post, the team explained that photographers may occasionally experience the presence of small ‘dots’ on their developed prints, something they don’t consider a big problem but hope to address in time. They also explain that Type-D isn’t very forgiving, and so photographers should “know what [they’re] doing” when they use it.

If you do know what you’re doing, you can get results like this:

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_5758076413″,”galleryId”:”5758076413″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });

Because the film is entirely produced within Russia, the price is low for international buyers: at only 230 rubles / $ 4 USD / 3.30 Euro / 3 GBP per roll. Probably as a result, the FOQUS website currently lists the film as out of stock.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Russia Hour Traffic: Andrey Tkachenko’s Soviet Car Concepts

10 Jul

[ By Steve in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

Russian freelance artist Andrey Tkachenko reveals the figurative swans hidden deep within the notoriously ugly ducklings of the Soviet automobile industry.

“General Motors is not in the business of making cars. It is in the business of making money.” So stated the late Thomas Murphy, Chairman of General Motors from 1974 thorough 1980. That mantra was turned on its head back in the USSR where state-run automotive “businesses” cranked out an astonishing variety of unappealing utilitarian conveyances that wouldn’t make their manufacturers money unless they were melted down and minted into kopeks.

That said, Soviet designers managed to express their creativity in very limited ways though such expressions always took a back seat to utilitarianism. Andrey Tkachenko, a young freelance artist and graphic designer based in the northwestern Russian Federation city of Nizhny Novgorod, looks beyond the limits of those stodgy soviet auto designs and extrapolates their modest aesthetics to heights the original designers feared to even imagine. Case in point: the GAZ-13 M13 “Chaika”, a soviet luxury car produced between 1958 and 1981 that falls stylistically between a Packard Caribbean and a Checker cab. Most Chaikas were painted black; the two-toned example above being a rare exception.

Putin Approved

We’re showcasing some of Tkachenko’s graphic renderings – “ciberconcepts”, as he calls them – along with images of their real-world inspirations. It’s an endeavor made possible though the artist’s trademark of captioning most of his works with the vehicle’s model designations. However, we must take issue with the “ZAZ-969 Coupe Japanese Style” above; it’s actually a ZAZ-968 similar to Vladimir Putin’s first car, a 1972 model. Being a judo aficionado holding a black belt, Vlad would likely approve of Tkachenko’s subtly Japanesque makeover.

Zuk On This

The Zuk (Polish for “Beetle”) was manufactured by the FSC Lublin Automotive Factory in Poland for a mind-boggling 40 years – from 1958 through 1998 – with few changes over the production run. Panel van versions were exported to the Soviet Union which is how Andrey Tkachenko knows of them. Tkachenko’s take on the alarmingly slab-sided Zuk transforms the rough & ready van into a Jagermeister-spewing “Time Attack Custom Project”. Can’t say it doesn’t look too shabby, with or without the aid of Jagermeister shots. Just below it is a real-world Zuk parked beside a late-production (between 1979 and 1994) ZAZ-968M.

Step On The GAZ

The GAZ-21 “Volga” was a so-called “executive car” manufactured by GAZ (“Gorky automobile factory” in English) from 1956 through 1970. Volga’s were desirable cars in their day, though one had to be in the KGB to order the hot V8-powered version with an automatic transmission. Exuding a 1952 Ford-ish vibe, the third series (1962-70) displayed a toothy chromed grill that features prominently in Tkachenko’s chop-topped, two-seater “Volgaster”.

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Russia Hour Traffic Andrey Tkachenkos Soviet Car Concepts

[ By Steve in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Imperial Pomp: Strange Post-Soviet Skyscrapers in Remote Russia

01 Jun

[ By SA Rogers in Culture & History & Travel. ]

Deep in the most remote reaches of the Soviet Union, strange skyscrapers glitter against the sky, made all the more out of place by their sleepy rural settings and lack of similarly scaled surroundings. Photographer Frank Herfort calls them ‘Imperial Pomp,’ monstrous and overly ostentatious structures that sprung up throughout the nation and the former Soviet Union in the decades since the collapse of the USSR. Traveling to places that might not otherwise draw many foreign visitors, Herfort captured the skyscrapers in all their strangely proportioned glamour for his photo book ‘Imperial Pomp – Post Soviet High-Rise.’

“After exploring Moscow’s structures I realized, that in all cities and former Soviet countries you can find such buildings,” says Herfort. “So I traveled to Vladivostok, to Blagoveshchensk on the Chinese border on River Amur, to Astana in Kazakhstan, to Baku in Azerbaijan, to Sochi and to St. Petersburg. And everywhere in between. I was always impressed by these huge constructions while driving through Moscow. Moscow doesn’t have a big skyline or big houses in the cityscape, and then I was even more impressed when suddenly there appeared one of these big new colored buildings. They are standing like single flowers cropped in the landscape.”

The German photographer notes that he feels like the buildings are “used to manipulate the humans and try to make them feel small.” He says the buildings rarely have infrastructure or real access built around them to invite the public to experience and interact with them, because they weren’t built with a care for anything other than showing off. That would certainly fit with the American perspective on Russia and its strongman fascination.

The buildings do feel like modern iterations of the strange Soviet-era monuments that still litter much of the former Soviet Union, though they’re nowhere near as creative and sculptural as the wondrous and bizarre relics of what used to be Yugoslavia.

Herfort’s book is out of stock at the publisher’s website, but a few copies are still available on Amazon, and you can see more of his work at his website.

[ By SA Rogers in Culture & History & Travel. ]

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Amphibious Folding Motorcycle from Russia Fits in the Trunk of a Car

12 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

folding motorcycle 8

“How long I’ve wanted this dream to come true,” wails Twisted Sister as a motorcycle zips through a mud pit that’s snatching the boots of its rider in this frankly ridiculous video of the Russian motorbike Taurus 2×2. The video shows the bike zooming through giant puddles, pulling a trailer piled with hay bales and even giving a second motorcycle a lift like it weighs next to nothing. Designed specifically for agricultural purposes and recreation in rural Russia, the bike definitely shows off what it can do, leaving no doubt that it can tackle some serious tasks.

folding motorcycle 1

folding motorcycle 4

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Perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment is when the rider drops the Taurus right into a body of water and it gently bobs to the surface thanks to those bulbous tires and its mere 181-pound weight. It’s extra-light, amphibious and takes just five minutes to dismantle for transport inside another vehicle. It’s not street legal, however – riders have to stick to the back roads of Russia, but that’s really where the Taurus shines.

folding motorcycle 3

folding motorcycle 9

It may not be pretty, but it’s impressively aggressive, navigating landscapes that even the toughest dirt bikes wouldn’t dare take on. Can’t you just imagine shirtless Vladimir Putin on the back of this thing? The Taurus is currently only available in Russia, but its creators say they’re hoping to sell it internationally sometime soon.

[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Ghostly Floating Farms: Abandoned Rural Buildings of Russia

02 Jan

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned farm building ukraine

The former USSR boasts some of the world’s weirdest and most hauntingly beautiful abandoned structures, from sci-fi monuments to prison camps and military facilities. Many of Russia’s abandoned wonders are byproducts of the Soviet collapse, including remote stretches of countryside that are no longer feasible to live in due to ill-kept or destroyed roads and infrastructure. Some of the structures that can be found there include intricate hand-carved wooden farmhouses and agricultural buildings that seem to hover in midair.

19th Century Farmhouses in Kostroma

abandoned farmhouse russia 5

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abandoned wooden farmhouse

abandoned wooden farmhouse 2

These stunning examples of 19th century Russian architectural craftsmanship have sadly fallen into disrepair on the inside, but the exteriors generally look as cool as ever. Some are in better condition than others, looking as if they’re just waiting for their owners to return. Located deep within the forests of Kostroma, the abandoned family homes are likely too far from civilization to support most present-day occupants. Photographer Andrew Qzmn travels through the countryside documenting these forgotten structures, as well as those that are still kept up.

Floating Farm Building, Ukraine

floating potato

Reportedly located in Ukraine rather than Russia, this farm building might seem like a Photoshop job at first, but a few pictures sent into the blog Curious Places confirm it to be part of a potato sorting facility, with speculation that part of it may have been dismantled since it was actively in use.

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Ghostly Floating Farms Abandoned Rural Buildings Of Russia

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Only in Russia: World’s First Floating Nuclear Power Plant

16 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

russian floating power plant

It sounds at best far-fetched and at worst frightening, at least at first, but this unique water-based energy station is already under construction and is designed to (safely) generate power and fresh water to over 200,000 people.

russian nuclear power station

The Akademik Lomonosov is being built at a submarine construction facility and is set to launch before 2020. While it is set to be stationed offshore, it opens up a new world of possibilities for fueling remote settlements, temporary outposts, research stations or floating cities.

russian power plant design

The vessel will produce an impressive 70 megawatts of electricity – more than enough to support a mid-sized city. It will also desalinate ocean water to increase regional freshwater supplies.

russian mobile energy source

With the world wondering about the fate of the Fukushima plant in Japan, following its fateful impact by a tsunami and subsequent fallout, it seems like a strange time to be working on projects where water meats nuclear power. Still, in this case the uranium is far less enriched and of the same type being used in Russian icebreakers already. The power plant is a project of LLC Baltiysky Zavod Shipbuilding, a St. Petersburg division of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC).

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Posts Tagged ‘Russia’

FOQUS Type-D 200 is a new 35mm black-and-white film from Russia