Lomography is the commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, Austria for products and services related to photography. The name is inspired by the former state-run optics manufacturer LOMO PLC of St. Petersburg, Russia. A Lomo Camera refers to any of these 'toy' plastic cameras.


After using digital, going back to film can really open your eyes. Being forced to think about composition, exposure, aperture, all the annoyingly technical  things that the 'instant review' of digital allows you to forget (or at least push to one side) can take a while to get used to. All the film users will probably say in unison 'ah, but that's real photography!'. Well in that case a challenge you to 4 rolls through a Holga. See how you cope with no metering, no focusing aids, no shutter speed selection, and only a token gesture of a choice between apertures. If digital photography is climbing Mount Everest with a full support team, and film photography is scaling the mountain without oxygen, then using a Holga is like doing it naked. In Winter. Whilst those in the know laugh and point.


Countless websites out there will tell you of the joys and fun you can have with a Lomo camera, and I can but agree with them! I've never actually physically chortled when taking pictures before, but using a little plastic Holga brings out the child in you (by the fifth film, however, you'll be convinced that you're Cartier-Bresson or Capa and try to be all arty). With all the light leaks, vignetting and problems trying to keep the film flat in the camera, the end results are wonderfully quirky and strangely hypnotic, and something that no amount of time in PhotoShop will enable you to reproduce. On one website, under the 'trouble shooting' section, the advice for 'blurred images' when using a Holga is to 'buy a Hasselblad'. Nuff said!


I'll add to the galleries below as I run film through the different Lomo cameras I have at my disposal, but go out and try it yourself, you might like it.



Holga Gallery 1: First films through the plastic wonder!


SuperSampler Gallery 1: Includes a first attempt at a SuperSampler 'Joiner'!




Meanwhile, I'll leave you with the official '10 Rules for Lomography'

  1. Take your LOMO everywhere you go and whenever you go.
  2. Use it any time - 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.