On The Hunt for Old Soviet Camera Lenses

Weekends are the two days of the week where some areas of the city open up a bit, where various types of merchants flock to two spaces and attempt to sell their little items collected or made throughout the years. In some ways these are cheap jewellery that's imported, some cheap tourist trap items, or in my interest: the rarer Soviet technological items that can be found for incredibly cheap prices compared to the Internet or shops that know their true value. There's a particular Soviet era set of camera lenses that I'm really on the hunt for lately, and naturally the weekend days are the best ones to find them. I first headed over to the main market in the city, mostly where the tourist traps are found, but in the past there has been a camera seller there that holds a lot of unique cameras, lenses, and various little items related to cameras. I hadn't been able to get to the market in a while, so I was really hoping I'd find him there today.

He wasn't there. To much disappointment, the two Мир lenses I have been eyeing up for a few weeks now were just nowhere to be found in the area. I roamed around the market hunting for it, then decided the next best option was another market a little bit nearby. It required walking through the city and grabbing another bus to a stadium which is known as Hrazdan. All I found here was Post-Soviet depression though. I wish I could've taken more images of it, but the very first I took had a strange looking gypsy-like woman by my side really trying to tell me something. I could generally understand what she was implying for the most part, but I wasn't happy that someone was clearly trying to annoy me over taking a photograph there. I played the dumb tourist card and walked off and that was that. I got the one image of the environment from my phone though. Here, it was old industrial equipment and tents of clothing. Women tired and just asleep in those little tends on the clothes they were trying to sell.

Old items insist on teasing me throughout the city though. A lot of old Soviet era cars popping up for the events taking place in the city. These old cars, a Volga and some other I had never seen before, likely from the 40s - 60s. Around the same decades that the lenses I've been hunting for were originally made. I had seen them before, those lenses. I initially knew of them but had no interest, and of course now the interest is there, the lenses are nowhere to be found. Having me running around the city on a Sunday, looking like the most rushed person around whereas the city is generally slower on those weekend days. Where others just slowly walk around and appreciate the scenery, I was running around those stalls in search of the camera guy.

The sun was oddly strong today too. Where the harsh sunlight was not met with any protection. Wide open areas where the markets took place. The second being at an old Stadium that is hardly used. The market having just taken the space at the end of the Soviet union, when people just created their own ways to make a living. Selling various crafts and unwanted/wanted belongings to make ends meet. And through this the markets evolved and continued to this day. The people at them generally aged, more weathered by time and the harsh sunlight. People with old Ladas and generally not well-off. It was quite a big cultural shock to see, which was a surprise for me given how much poverty and decay I have seen throughout the two nations of Georgia and Armenia. A result of that USSR collapse mostly.

I may not have found the lenses I wanted, but in the end I did see these incredibly old and beautiful looking flags from the USSR. The second one in particular very old and not in the best condition. I was really curious as to where this seller had obtained it. Usually these people just find them in old abandoned buildings and sell them on, the same case with other historical items. Often the case with many books which appear at the markets. But still a fascinating find nonetheless.