Lomography is an adaptation of the word photography that was originally inspired by users of the Lomo LC-A. The first Lomo was a simple fixed lens 35mm Russian produced camera that was discontinued in 2005 due to the waning popularity of film photography. Shooting with a Lomo was a challenging experience that embraced flaw-inducing techniques while demanding acceptance from its loyalists. Though the original Lomo is a rare sight, unexpected deals on cameras like this one keep growing and contributing to the popularity of Lomography throughout the digital age.
If Lomography had to be reduced to a single word, it would be “unpredictable.” Lomographers are encouraged to disregard their usual proclivity for image perfection is search of uniquely characterized snapshots influenced by uncontrolled photographic circumstances. To become an active Lomographer, one’s first step is to acquire a camera that can be kept in one’s pocket at all times. This is why early cameras on phones were so quickly embraced by many Lomographers. The low quality simplicity of the early camera phone images has since been replaced by applications like the Hipstimatic that convert modern high-quality camera phone images into distorted Lomography images. Carrying a camera encourages Lomographers to shoot constantly, which leads to an increase in snapshot capture.
A snapshot is a photograph that is taken for personal documentary reasons with little regard for the technical proficiency of the overall image. Before digital cameras became incredibly efficient and affordable, the only viable option for the general public interested in capturing snapshots was fixed lens 35mm cameras. Many of these generally appealing 35mm cameras simply had a single button that was pushed to capture an image and required no attention to focusing or exposure. Today, the one-button digital photography that is widely popular may seem similar in execution to the earlier 35mm cameras, but the intelligent electronics within all digital cameras are actually making a tremendous amounts of adjustments and calculations. This is why the compact digitals of today can usually capture a decent image regardless of the scene, but the 35mm one-button cameras of before suffered extraordinary variance in their image results.
The varying results of 35mm film photography were due to improper exposure, improper focus, low quality lenses or combinations of these influences. The results, as in the Lomo LC-A, would yield surprising consequences once the photographs were developed and printed. Originally, many people were frustrated by the common flawed results inherent in the pictures from a cheap camera. However, Lomography encouraged photographers to recognize each individual print as a unique work of random expression that unpredictably enhanced the nature of the original snapshot. Once photographers began to embrace this concept, Lomography’s popularity exploded.
Legendary Lomography cameras include the Lomo LC-A, the Holga, the Diana and the Action Sampler. Each of these cameras is made of cheap plastic and offers image characteristics that are now being replicated by DLSR users through Photoshop, but this misses the point of Lomography. This type of photography is not about having ultra-saturated images or extreme vignetting or finding the highest megapixel camera deals. It is about embracing the uncontrolled singularity of a cheap camera’s low quality imaging skills by respecting each printed picture as a work of randomly occurring art. Lomography encourages spending less time looking at life through a camera by creating memory-inspiring pictures, “shot from the hip,” with their own unique natural flaws.
Annie Birk is a jack of many trades, first and foremost she is a 5th grade school teacher. She also enjoys nature photography and gardening.