Lomography

Lomography, a registered trademark of Lomographische AG (Austria), is a movement that, via the Lomography Society International, promotes the use of Lomo cameras — primarily and most famously the LC-A but also cameras as unlike this as the fisheye lomography camera — and a "shoot from the hip" attitude. (Many outsiders regard it as merely a sales gimmick to drive sales of these cameras at inflated prices.) Viewed as either a modern impressionistic art movement for photography to create images of everyday 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.

The photographic results of "Lomography"

Subjects

Blue skies, brightly colored objects, pink noses of pets, young people pulling faces are common.

Focus

The original Lomo cannot focus so close, and anyway rules 6 and 7 discourage focusing. The photographs are often out of focus (especially when they are of pets' noses). This "effect" can of course be achieved with most cameras.

Degraded edges

The original Lomo has better image quality in the center than at the edges. This effect — much more pronounced with the Holga, which adds vignetting — 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.

Cameras sold by Lomography

Lomography Diana shop window display by AWCam

In addition to the cameras made by the LOMO factory, Lomographic also sells other cameras:

• Diana Plus
• Lomographic ActionSampler (and Flash model)
• Lomographic Colorsplash Camera
• Lomographic Fisheye Camera
• Lomographic Frogeye Underwater
• Lomographic Oktomat
• Lomographic Pop9
• Lomographic SuperSampler
• Lomolitos Single Use
• Polaroid Spectra Blitz

Links

• Lomographic 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