Much as we love digital photography - heck, we regularly feature the work of our Flickrpool snappers - there's something about the fading world of film photography that still appeals. The people at Lomography agree, and this week sees the Photographer's Gallery play host to London Lomography Thursday.
Lomography is the art of using old, Russian-built cameras to take photos in an endearingly spontaneous and creative way. The movement began in the Nineties, when a group of Austrian art students rediscovered the Lomo LC-A, a 35mm Soviet era compact with a robust lens and a knack for taking rich, evocative pictures drenched with oversaturated colour and blurry, unpredictable images. In the hands of these committed students, the LC-A was rediscovered as a tool of wonderfully expressive capabilities, and thus was spawned an obsession that now encompasses a whole range of cameras and a worldwide following.
The London Lomography Thursday emerged out of last year's World Congress, the highlight of which was the Lomography Lomowall in Trafalgar Square, and is a way of bringing Lomographers in London together. The theme for the evening? "Caring Is Sharing": fans are invited to turn up with their Lomographic camera of choice, and an exposed film, which they then swap with somebody else for them to use in their own camera, thus creating double-exposed prints and crazy mash-ups galore. As the Lomographers themselves philosophically inquire: Is a dog still a dog if it’s crossed with a tree?. Quite.
The organisers promise a "magical mystery tour" across the city, with participants taking photographs on a number of themes including "Fear", "Reflection" and "A Different Perspective". People are invited to submit their accidental masterpieces to the London Lomohome by June 20th for a chance to win prizes.
Don't have your own Lomo? The Photographer's Gallery is generously offering 10% off all Lomography products on the night, so here's your chance to grab a Holga or an LC-A and rediscover the beauty of photography free from megapixels and memory cards.
London Lomography Thursday, 5th June. Meet 6.30 at the Photographer's Gallery, WC2H 7HY. Free, but email [email protected] to reserve a place.
Image courtesy of Holster®'s Flickrstream under the Creative Commons Attribution license. See more Lomography on the Lomo Flickr pool
