Lomography!

[panojibber.]

Not sure if there's a thread on this already, but recently I stumbled across this really cool photography community on lomography.ca.The idea is basically to use a cheap point-and-shoot film camera (we're talking like 2 aperture settings on some of them), to produce unpredictable and interesting photos!

Here are some examples:

The first 3 photos were shot with the Diana+, the last one with the Belair x 6-12 (the belair is not a cheap toy camera like the diana).

YES it is basically instagram but with cameras, but I think some of the images people are producing are really cool!

An M&A film photographers want to weigh in on this?

Anyone know where I could go to learn a bit more about creative use of film photography?

 

[DrZoidberg]

Ugh, this is why people think film somehow makes a low quality image with faded color and a million light leaks. Some people use these cameras/style well, but most people just shoot whatever and are like ohhh look at the light leaks so artsy omgzzz. I think this aesthetic or whatever you're gonna call it is hard to pull off well, and most of the time it looks like some straight noob shit. It looks cool but that's about it. A cheap trick, usually.

Second one is interesting, the others are meh. Especially the first. There's not much in it, it's not particularly interesting, and the lo fi isn't helping; an example what I'm talking about.

Advice for creative shooting (regardless of medium) is to look at other photographers who you like. Come up with a decent composition and subject matter, unlike the electric line thing, cause that's been done about a million times. And yes I know everybody is guilty of cliche shots at one point.

 

[Balto]

expired slide film cross processed is all i think of when it comes to lomo

 

[panojibber.]

I can definitely understand why people might not be a fan, I just like the idea of using imperfections in an interesting way, i.e. crappy plastic cameras leaking light everywhere that produce interesting visual effects, or expired film as a creative effect. I mean, without some post-processing you're not going to get images from a DSLR that look like this (unless you really know exactly what the fuck you're doing, and probably not even then).

You can't take it too seriously, its not meant to produce crisp and beautiful images or stunning compositions, its just capturing whatever happens to catch your eye.

Its like recording to magnetic tape for the sake of tape distortion. At the time nobody wanted it but its referential to a past era of analog media. Maybe if people didn't hate instagram and hipster-photoshops of lame pictures this would be more interesting.

Here's a link to an article from the guardian with some slightly better photos:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2012/sep/12/best-lomography-analogue-travel-photos#/

 

[SKIWAGEN]

do you know where the first one was taken? itlooks like a beach near me

 

[panojibber.]

No idea, I just pulled a few images off google as examples. The Lomography website won't give me a URL for photos so I just took what I could find.

 

[[~_~]]

Lomography is an embodiment of everything I don't like about photography.

There's that 1 in 10,000 chance shot that actually looks good, but why not just shoot nice photos intentionally and quit polluting your storage binders with leakey cross processed faux art?

 

[[~_~]]

I disagree. Many artists record to tape not for novelty purposes; it actually sounds better when used correctly. Not in the "OMG analogue chaos" sense, but subtle warmth that doesn't exist solely for it's own sake. And for the record, I've disliked lomography long before iphones even existed, though I like instagram. Weird how that works.

 

[panojibber.]

I never said it was for the novelty of using tape, I said that people record to tape for the sake of having some tape distortion in their recordings, which is the same thing as tape warmth. "Better" is a matter of preference, the reason you see a pro-tools desk in 99% of recording studios now (and not a reel-to-reel) is because the quality of the audio is way better and way easier to work with. The point is it wasn't a desirable medium at the time (because of all the challenges it posed), but now we like it because of the subtle distortion.

There's so much more to tape effects than just adding a little warmth too, if you hit the gain right on certain tape recorders then you can have a recording that sounds really old and grainy. Thats not abusing the medium, and its not adding subtle warmth; its reminding you of listening to an old beat up cassette in your car, for example. Thats creative use of the medium. See: boards of canada (they use all sorts of interesting tape effects, and have very good reasons for doing so).

Its all about how and why you use it, I'm not trying to defend lomography with this post, just clarifying my views on the use of tapes in music. Pretty sure we're agreeing here.

By all means you can despise lomography though. I just think its a cool process that produces some interesting images. I'm not saying it should be used all the time.

 

[[~_~]]

Indubitably. I find your Boards of Canada example interesting. Lomography does seem like a visual embodiment of their music style, and while I love Boards of Canada, I think I have ideas of renaissance and classicism too deeply ingrained in my visual eye to give it the same praise. Oddly enough, I love Sigur Rós' whole visual aesthetic. Maybe its the natural landscapes and textures...

 

[panojibber.]

Yeah, their album artwork and the very few photos that come out of Hexagon Sun are what got me interested in this technique. I am absolutely obsessed with BoC. Every time I figure something out about their music I feel like I'm discovering some esoteric secret or something, I felt the same way when I stumbled across lomography.

The last one really blows my mind because its so perfect, down to the clothes even.