Lomography

Lomography, a registered trademark of Lomographische AG (Austria), is a movement that promotes, or a marketing gimmick that exploits, the use of Lomo cameras, primarily and most famously the LC-A, and a "shoot from the hip" attitude. Viewed as either a modern impressionistic art movement for photography to create images of every day life or a simple (and effective) marketing ploy, Lomography has attracted a large international following around "The 10 rules"

10 Rules

1. Take your LOMO everywhere you go.
2. Use it anytime - day or night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of it.
4. Shoot 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 beforehand what you've captured on film.
9. You don't have to know afterwards, either.
10. Don't worry about the rules.

Lomography is sometimes used as a synonym for the adventure of making pictures with the simple LOMO cameras of Soviet production and later models.

The Lomography Society International in Vienna has made "Lomography" the brand name for new LOMO cameras, marketed as fun devices for hip people. (One such camera is the fisheye lomography camera.)

The photographic results of "Lomography"

Focus

The original Lomo cannot focus so close, and anyway rules 6 and 7 discourage focusing. The photographs are often out of focus. This effect can of course be achieved with most cameras.

Degraded edges

The original Lomo has much better image quality in the center than at the edges, and vignettes toward the corners. This effect can of course be achieved with many cheap cameras.

Lurid colors

The original Lomo is widely believed to produce vivid colors. This claim has gone unexplained, and the evidence provided for it is much less a matter of the lens (or camera) than of film processing techniques, which can of course be equally applied to film from any 35mm camera.

Viral marketing

As this movement was created and is run by the "Lomographic Society", the sole legal importer of LOMO products to the United States, many have suggested that the Lomographic movement was started as a viral marketing campaign. The Lomographic Society was able to increase the demand for its products by creating a group of which its customers would instantly become members. This increased demand led to increased prices - the LOMO LC-A, for example, would cost about $30 US in the former Soviet Union. If bought through the Lomographic Society, the same camera would cost $200 US. Judged in terms of profit and generated hype, this marketing campaign has been very effective.

Links

• Lomography Society International
• Flickr Lomography Group
• Lomography News
• Why I don't like Lomography, from Alfred Klomp's camera site
• Emulating the Lomo effect in Gimp
• Emulating the Lomo effect in Photoshop

Glossary Terms