What in the world is Lomography?
February 25th, 2010
2My experience with photography is very limited. I spent a couple of years buying disposable cameras in college before finally picking up one of the cheaper digital cameras I could find. The words, “alright, on 3” usually preceded the pictures that were generally taken so we had proof of being somewhere. You just never know when the insurance company might follow up on a claim (only kidding).
I read about a movement in the world of photography called Lomography last week and learned that there were workshops for beginners/novices taking place down the street from where I lived. Armed with a good excuse to get out of the house on a sunny day, I decided to head over to the Lomography shop to see what it was all about.
What I found was that the Lomography movement started in the early 90’s. It’s based on the Lomo LC-A camera that was originally built in the Soviet Union back in the mid-eighties. This casual style of photography’s charm comes from the seemingly mundane imperfections that turn out to be refreshing surprises on film. Photos with blurring, over-saturation of colors, and “happy accidents” can often be the result of a day of shooting with a Lomographic camera.
Once the sit-down workshop was over, the group walked the streets of West Hollywood with cameras in hand and learned a few tricks about taking good Lomographic pictures. I guess the cool thing about Lomography is that while every person in our group was taking pictures of the same things, on the same street, for an hour; each roll of film ended up looking completely different. In just a couple of hours, a novice such as myself started looking at Santa Monica blvd. in a whole new way, enjoying the nuances of photography and creatively experimenting with my camera.
So, if you’re ever looking for something to do in LA and want to tool around with a camera, know that there’s a thing called Lomography out there. (And no, this obviously isn’t strictly an LA thing; it’s just that this is one of the few cities in the country that has a physical shop to go to).
Fun fact: When production of the Lomo LC-A shut down in 1996, the heads of Lomography and the then Vice Mayor of St. Petersberg, Vladimir Putin, had a large part in getting production back up and keeping the movement alive.
Yes, these are my pictures from the day. No, I have obviously not mastered the art of lomo.
Tagged with: Lomography, Los Angeles
Related Posts
Author
Phil Hitzeroth
Phil is our Business Operations Coordinator. He loves the metro, but has come to the cold realization that the metro will never love him back.
2 Comments Leave a comment
oh I’m so addicted. I was just reading an article one day a couple of months ago and got excited. I started reading about holgas and dianas, lubitels, etc…
now I’m waiting for my holga to come in the mail…just bought a superheadz wide angle slim cam, a yashica-a tlr, picked up a photoflex mx35 and can’t wait to visit another thrift store to see what treasures I can find.
BTW, I shoot with a Canon 50D normally lol..but like you said, so much more excited with these little junkers.
Leave a comment
Allowed Tags
_emphasis_
*strong*
??citation??
-deleted text-
+inserted text+
^superscript^
~subscript~
@code@
Add code using a GIST
gist: gistid
There’s a really great lomography shop in London, just off Carnaby St. If you’re ever in town you should take a look in.
No matter how many wonderful cameras I buy with their ridiculous numbers of pixels, I always get excited when sending off a roll from my LC-A.
I hope you get addicted.
Reply to comment