“Ball of confusion, that’s what the world is today…” A short stroll through the 21st Century…terrorism, war, market crash, war, racism, violence, mass shootings, political unrest, a pandemic… and now…another war. Growing up during the Cold War, I always had a fear and suspicion of Russia… or the Soviet Union, as it used to be called. Also, a fascination with the Eastern Bloc as well. Berlin split in two…the fear of a nuclear war. What’s old is new again. I have become obsessed with the plight of the Ukrainian people and their country, becoming surprisingly hawkish, in fact. But at the same time, I feel sad and powerless and afraid and… and… and…

I used to joke about this clunky 6 x 6 camera of mine, this Kiev 6; calling it a Russian tank. It weighs a ton, and is somewhat unreliable, but I love it anyway. Little did I know that the factory that brought this camera to the world, to my hands, was actually based in the Ukraine… then it was part of the Soviet Union, so what did I know? Anyway, my little personal connection to Kyiv (as the Ukrainians call it, thus I will as well) doesn’t really amount to a hill of beans, but still, I placed a new, different value on this camera this week. Whose hands worked to build it ? What are their offspring, or even them personally, doing right now?