Like floating in a water stream ... you never know where you will end up
A week or so ago, I had a new person follow me on Twitter or Google+, I don’t quite recall which one, and can’t find them now. The person had a last name that prompted me to go “hmmm…” That last name was Medvedev. As someone who tends to follow global news, yes, I knew Medvedev is also the last name of the President of the Russian Federation. It isn’t a name you come across very often here in the US, except in the news, so it poked at my curiosity. I have also had to block more than a few dozen or so hacking attempts to my site from that region, so I thought it was worthy of some further investigation.
Now, I am not assuming it was THE President of Russia, but the same last name nonetheless. (I simply can’t picture the President of Russia sitting in the Kremlin surfing grafphoto.com 🙂 ) I thought – “Wouldn’t it be interesting if he was a cousin or something?” So off to Google I go, and I end up on the Wikipedia page for the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev. I was more or less scanning the page for the name of this follower if he was a relative or something. No such revelations.
However, the Wikipedia page for Dmitri Medvedev revealed not only about the man’s rise to the Russian presidency, but a bit about him personally. The first thing that I thought was pretty cool was that he is an avid Led Zeppelin / Pink Floyd fan, collecting all the records of Deep Purple since when he was young, despite them being black-listed in Russia. I also, of course, picked up on that he is a photographer – and quite a good one!
In fact, one of his photographs is listed as one of the most expensive photos ever sold – for the grand total of 51 Million Rubles (US $1,750,000). You can see that photo here as it appeared in a Russian news article. Also, as an off-shoot of the official website of the Russian president, there is a section of his personal photos. At this point, it feels a little bit like I am in the Twilight Zone here. I am looking at a website that is part of the Russian Kremlin, that has this personal photo page of a regular guy with a camera on a boat, a fan of old British rock bands, and just happens to be the President of Russia. I can almost picture sitting down with the guy at a bar, slinging back some vodka, and talking photo gear. And oh yeah, Medvedev translates from Russian to English as meaning “bear.” Bears rock!
To say the least, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by this whole discovery and thought I would share it with you folks. It also seemed coincidence that I recently processed this image, and this whole situation made me think of a little leaf getting caught in a stream of water – rushing down a path towards who knows where. There are quite a few famous people that are little known as photographers that I have thought about starting a series on. I just didn’t figure it would start with President Dmitri Medvedev!
EDIT 04Mar: I came upon this interesting video on YouTube and thought I would add it here. You can turn on captioning for the translation:
A very surprising coincidence, thanks for sharing it – it made my day way more interesting! By the way, congratulations on your photos, they look stunning!
Hi Michael –
Welcome from Poland! Thanks, I am glad it had an impact. Actually, I would think this might be more widely known over in that region of the world?
Probably you’re right as Poland is almost a neighbor to Russia, but it doesn’t mean that every Polish citizen knows about Miedwiediew’s interests and hobbies 😉 Also keep in mind that it was not him but Putin, who was (is) still the most influential person in Russian politics and therefore the whole media fuss covered the topic of the Prime Minister. Actually Poland and Russia are two completely different countries, do not be misled by history and geography 🙂
Being not so interested in politics, at least I can confirm that Miedwiediew means “a bear” and it is pronounced similarly in Polish!
Just as well, I don’t know the hobbies of the Canadian or Mexican leaders either. 🙂
I guess they rarely do have any hobbies and that’s why I do not aspire to become a national leader, at least not know 😉
What an interesting tangent to go off on. If you ever do the famous people features look up Prince Andrew. He’s actually quite good. I have a book of his images.
Thanks for the recommendation Roberta. I will have to add him to the list.
You and your cousin Dmitri are darn good photographers. I suspect his day job pays more than yours but who cares, we’re talking photography on this blog. This goes to show how wide and deep the internet is. By the way I really like this image!
Yep, cousin Dmitri and I go way back, and plan to go on a photo trip after what appears to be him leaving office this year. 🙂 Thanks Monte.
This is a really interesting post, Mark. Its amazing what you find out when you start doing a bit of research. Also, its amazing where that path can lead you.
Beautiful image, btw…
Thanks Greg. Seems cliche to say it now, be we are still reminded how the internet has made the world a much smaller place!
I just updated this post with a video I came upon on YouTube where Medvedev talks about photography.
Reading this post I couldn’t help but think of the new TV show on FOX called “Touch” starring Kiefer Sutherland. The premise of this story is that Kiefer TV son is Autistic and through a silent love of mathematics has discovered the connection of all things. It deals with people and events coming together at the “right” moments. Only the pilot has aired thus far. Cool post…and a beautiful photo!
Earl, I have actually been looking forward to the replay of that pilot. It looks like an interesting series. Thanks.
I just came from the President’s personal photo site and he is a talented photographer. What an honor to have him as a follower. Great story and cool photo.
Hey Ken – I don’t think it was him, just the person had the same last name.
Maybe he’s having his hacker do your site to find out your secrets…a whole new way to learn photo blogging. Anyway, so as not to vilify the Russians any more than they are already, he looks like a “regular guy” who likes to make photographs from his boat.
That could be David, LOL!
Mark, that certainly is an interesting tangent. I went to the President’s web site and look at some of his photos. Very cool. I also read his bio and see that he has PhD in law and holds the title of associate professor. That’s very cool. The only thing that I saw that was so cool was that he uses Canon gear. 😉
Yeah, my opinion went down after seeing that Paul. Too bad you just traded in for a D700, you might be interested in the camera he is holding here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/siboma2009/4252826777/
Yeah, right. A Leica S2? Ummm, I don’t have a presidential salary, but good lookin’ out, Mark! 🙂
Cool story Mark. Good to know the Russian president is a cooler guy than the stupid Russian hackers.
Hopefully he is! The bit about the elections in Russia has been in the news quite a bit lately, so I don’t know if Russians would agree.