Soup Magazine

Don’t Think, Just Shoot

Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by admin in Art and Fashion, Featured

A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF LOMOGRAPHY

Words & Photographs by Ghostkamera

In 1991, a group of Austrian students first came across the Lomo LC-A and the many possibilities it offered. As the company states, they were “charmed by the unique, colourful, and sometimes blurry” images that the camera, originally manufactured in St Petersburg, produced. After securing the rights to sell the Lomo outside of Russia, the students managed to quickly turn their mild obsession into a worldwide phenomenon.

Within a few years, a worldwide empire of Lomographers addicted to the unpredictability and user-friendly functions of the LC-A had arisen. Even professional photographers would keep a Lomo in their pockets as a back-up to add a little sparkle to the mundane and ordinary.

What attracted me to the camera at first was the amazing colours and range of moods that it managed to capture. It was unlike any other camera I had used before, creating magical atmospheres in the most basic of settings. The unpredictable, at times contrary, nature of the camera works both for and against it, but it means that you truly don’t know how the shots will turn out until you develop them. Very often the ones you thought would turn out worst end up being your favorites, and vice versa.

OFFSHOOTS Due to the phenomenal success of the LC-A, the Lomographic Society began manufacturing and licensing other models for their roster. These included the “plastic fantastic” cameras: the Holga (a medium format camera made entirely out of plastic), the supersamplers, the fisheye, and more recently the Diana. These cameras have become incredibly popular among the younger demographic with their sparkly colours and kistch appeal.

Sadly, the Lomo Factory in St. Petersburg stopped making the LC-A camera a couple of years ago. Recently, a Chinese version called the LC-A+ was unleashed on a rabid public, but it didn’t live up to the perfection of the original. That left people scouring internet sites like Craigslist or Ebay for cheap deals on second hand or new Lomo’s from places such as Russia and other Eastern European counties.

MY LOMO LIFE I was one of the lucky few. I happened to be travelling in Pakistan back in 1997 and went to a small camera market in the middle of Karachi. After spending almost one hour walking through stall after stall and asking for the Lomo, finally one man lit up and announced that his friend had one further down the road. I literally ran after him through the crowded hallways filled with fake Rollei’s and broken Polaroids. We arrived at his friend’s stall and immediately he took out a brand new, original Russian LC-A. I managed to bargain with him and ended up paying 15 US Dollars.

Since that day, I have been documenting my life through pictures. I always have my Lomo with me, everywhere I go, at the ready. I have taken it to over 40 countries and in return it has immortalised those places in colours unspeakable. I look back at those temples and cities with a slightly unrealistic memory because, as I said before, the Lomo takes the mundane and adds a little sparkle. It takes photos of the world as it should be, not as it is.    [•]

Tags: Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Lomo, Lomography, Photography