Lomography: The world through a plastic lens

Hello steemians, today i would like to talk about Lomography, but wait, what is Lomography?

According to www.lomography.com "is a globally-active organization dedicated to analogue, experimental and creative photography". With millions of followers across the world, lomography maintains film photography alive.

It all started with a Russian General (General Igor Petrowitsch Kornitzky) a right-hand man to USSR Minister of Defense and Industry, slammed a little Japanese compact camera called the Cosina CX-1 onto the desk of his comrade, Michail Panfilowitsch Panfiloff. Panfiloff, who was the Director of the powerful LOMO Russian Arms and Optical factory, carefully examined the item, observing its sharp glass lens, extremely high light sensitivity and robust casing.

Realizing its potential, the two gentlemen gave orders to the LOMO PLC factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, to create an improved version of the Cosina CX-1 – and the first working sample of the LOMO LC-A was born.

In 1984, the LOMO LC-A began mass-production, with 1200 people working on the camera. Starting at 1100 units per month for the Russian market, the camera’s popularity soon spread to then Communist countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Cuba.

Around 1991 a group of students from Vienna traveling to Prague found the Lomo Lc-a in an old camera shop and started shooting their way out. Upon returning to Vienna, they had their film rolls developed, resulting in strangely beautiful images.

In 1992 Interest in the mysterious Soviet jewel was rapidly growing and the Lomography founders resorted to carrying out daring backpack raids to Russia in order to satisfy the demand for more and more of these fantastic LOMO LC-A cameras. It was then that the decision was finally made to found the Lomographic Society International (LSI).

After this, lomography have been getting more and more fame. The beauty of the pictures taken makes people want to use it everytime. The magic of this "phenomenon" is that the camera is made of plastic and is very simple to manage. Being categorized as a "toy camera"- with little cracks where the light leaks into the film, the results of the photos taken were almost a surprise, depending on the camera's mood, produces either the most enormous crap you've ever seen, or the most wonderful image ever.

There a lots of models of cameras nowadays. Today i'm going to talk about about Holga. I have two of them, a 120 mm film and a 35 mm one.

The Holga was made in Hong Kong in 1982 and it's name is a re-interpretation of the Cantonese word "ho gwong" meaning "very bright". It takes 120 medium format film. Cameras in this department tend to cost a lot of money. The Holga however, aside from the shutter spring and a couple of screws, is made entirely of plastic including the lens.

The lack of options with the Holga makes it an unpredictable and very exciting camera to use. Here is the first photos i took with my 120mm film Holga.

A swing

My brother

My husband and I

Many people have different views as to what makes the Holga so special. Could it be the light leaks? Is it the vignette around the edges? Perhaps it's the Holga's simple and rudimentary looks, but what everybody seems to have in common is the love to the camera.

Experimenting with these cameras is a must. In fact the rule is there are no rules!. You could do anything you want. The golden rules of Lomography are:

1. Take your camera everywhere you go
2. Use it at anytime-day and night
3. Lomography is not an interference to your life but part of it.
4. Try the shot from the hip
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible
6. Don't think
7. Be fast
8. You don't have to know before hand what you captured on film
9. Nor afterwards
10. Don't worry about any rules

That said, there's no good or bad photo taken, they are what they are and the choice is yours whether to like it or hate it.

After the first photos i took, i tried to experiment with different types of films, multiple exposures and so on. Let me share some pictures with a 35mm color film...

Mom

I haven't take pictures in a while, because in my country (Venezuela) is very hard to find a place to have films developed. If any of you knows where, please tell me so i can resume my activities with my Holgas.

I hope you like this post, feel free to give your opinion and tricks if you are a lomo user or not :)

-xo