Yuri Gargarin shoots with a Praktica!

[bobby_novatron]

Found this on a Russian current events and trivia blog ... they had a brief retrospective of Yuri Gargarin, showing some photographs of him out-of-uniform and doing 'regular' activities.

The blog mentions he was an avid photographer, and a couple of the photos in the blog show him handling cameras.

Here's the first photo:

Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see him with a Praktica camera around his neck! No plain-old proletarian Zorki or Fed for this famous cosmonaut! If I am not mistaken it's a variant of a Praktica Pentina.

In the other photo, we see Mr Gargarin at home with two cameras near by. The one in his hand looks like some kind of early SLR. An Exakta? Maybe a Soviet 'Zenit'? Maybe a 'Start'? I can't tell.

It's interesting to note the box behind him in the background in this shot -- somehow Mr Gargarin owned a Yashica! This would be extremely difficult for most people in the USSR ... imported consumer goods were scarce and extremely expensive, but I'm sure he had some good connections.

Anyway, just wanted to post these out of fun and interest. They were taken from the following website:

http://englishrussia.com/2013/04/15/ordinary-soviet-man-yuri-gagarin/#more-122572

 

[George Bonanno]

Not to mention that high end CCCP radio in the background.

I have that radio in a similar fashion and it's a superb performer to this day.

 

[pakeha]

Cover the left hand side of photo #2 from just under the word Zenit and look at the remaining right hand side of the image...who does he look like?🙂

 

[bk1970]

Just a small correction - his name was Gagarin, not Gargarin.

 

[Richard G]

Cover the left hand side of photo #2 from just under the word Zenit and look at the remaining right hand side of the image...who does he look like?🙂

My God! George W. Or Will Ferrell. Or Will Ferrell's George W.

 

[--s]

his best shot was with a wostok.

 

[bobby_novatron]

Sorry -- should have checked my spelling ... 'Gagarin'. Whoops.

For the record, let's just throw in a 'Neil Armmstrong' and call it even. 🙂

I also noticed the luxury hi-fi radio / shortwave in the background. Those were probably very expensive in the USSR as well. But of course, he was very well-looked after during his lifetime so I'm sure they didn't spare any expense to make him comfortable.

A random thought: I wonder if they ever gave him a Leningrad RF camera? You would think that would be very fitting. As far as I know, the Leningrad was considered a very high-end camera for the time, an example of excellent Soviet engineering.

It can even be argued that the Jupiter-8 Sonnar-clone on the Leningrad is a better lens than the simpler Tessar design on that clunky Praktica around his neck.

But this is all just idle speculation. I'd like to know more about how and why he got that Yashica!

 

[Vince Lupo]

First shot -- Pentacon Pentina. Second shot -- Exakta.