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Shining a light on lomography

October 19, 2010
By Maddie Leznoff

In an age where almost everyone has a digital camera and where camera-phone pictures are instantly uploaded to Facebook, it seems photography has become all about speed and perfection.

But what if flaws in the image were the desired effect?

That’s the goal of toy cameras. They’re relatively cheap, plastic cameras that still use film and purposely produce imperfect pictures.

“The images are completely non-digital, but they’re spectacular because you don’t know what you’re going to get and that’s the fun — letting go,” says MJ Idzerda, manager of the Forest City Image Centre on campus.

Lomography, an Austrian brand founded in 1991, is the most popular toy camera brand. The Image Centre now carries a range of toy cameras, ranging in price from $55 up to $100 for higher end models with a flash. This low cost is one of the main reasons photographers get in on the toy camera movement.

“The majority of photography is moving in one direction — digital, high-tech, high-res, high quality,” says Aaron Kennedy, president of Shutterbugs, Western’s photography club. “Toy cameras offer an alternative to this direction — they’re low-tech, low quality, low-res, and produce unreliable results. Not everybody wishes to pursue this high tech digital photography movement. For these people toy cameras offer an inexpensive way to get creative and artistic with photography.”

London photographer Jen Henriksen has her own blog dedicated to images taken with a Holga camera, and it’s the toy camera’s unpredictable nature that fuels her interest.

“Effects from toy cameras range from light leaks, grain, over-saturation, blur, multiple exposures, vignetting, high contrast — the list goes on depending on what type of camera you choose, and what you do with it,” she explains.

Toy cameras use plastic lenses — unlike digital cameras that use glass — and this accounts for the odd effects.

“They’re renowned for leaking light,” Idzerda says. “When you expose film to light, all kinds of strange things happen. That’s what these cameras are welcoming. They’re welcoming this opportunity for light to be transferred onto the film in really unique ways.”

It’s this uniqueness that seems to be missing from the crisp, enhanced, Photoshopped photographs that have been praised since the advent of digital cameras. Lomography returns to the traditional process of photography. And Kennedy says it produces the nostalgia of heading to the store to get your film developed, unsure of how your pictures will actually turn out.

“Digital photography allows users to easily share photos with friends and upload photos to Facebook — generally that is where the photo will always exist, in the digital world,” he says. “Few photos taken on a digital camera ever get printed. There is something special about holding a photograph in your hand, or looking at it in an album.”

For Henrikson, the appeal lies in the camera’s simplistic technology.

“When using a Holga, or other toy camera, you are stripped down to the bare essentials,” she says. “[It’s] you and a piece of plastic — no technicalities, fancy setups, or Photoshop. It’s just you and the film.”

Lomography encourages an art-for-arts-sake attitude, especially because the final product is a surprise.

“There are alternatives to the instant-on generation that we’re in, and film has not disappeared,” says Idzerda. “These cameras are just a representation of that. It’s a much more organic way of taking pictures. I like to walk around with this camera — you point, click and you don’t have to think.”

This makes lomography an ideal hobby for new photographers, but Kennedy also believes lomography is a gateway into re-igniting interest in film cameras for those with experience.

“[We] plan to purchase a number of these toy cameras this year for our members to borrow and try out,” he says. “As a club we are trying to offer members interested in film photography more than we have in the past, and these toy cameras are going to be a good start.”

Check out the toy cameras out at the Forest City Image Centre, located in the basement of the University Community Centre. Visit Jen Henriksen’s blog at www.holgajen.blogspot.com.

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