How Everything Started
In the early 1990’s, we (a handful of Viennese students) took a trip to Prague and happened upon a small enigmatic Russian camera called the Lomo Kompakt Automat. Immediately, we started a new style of artistic experimental photography with our own and our friends’ first unorthodox snapshot cavortings. Our approach: Take as many photographs (Lomographs) as possible in the most impossible of situations possible and from the most unusual positions possible and having them developed as cheaply as possible. The result was a flood of authentic, colorful, crazy, off-the-wall, and unfamiliar snapshots – shot by many people and mounted on panels to form a sea of thousands of Lomographs. Lomographic events, exhibitions, and interactive projects were soon rolled out across the world, and Lomographic “Embassies” were founded in over 75 countries. To date, major shows have been held in Moscow, New York, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Seoul, Havana, Zurich, Cologne, Madrid, Cairo, Frankfurt, Dubai, Oslo, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Buenos Aires, London, Barcelona, Beijing, and many other cities.
Lomography people, lifestyle, and tools
What started out spontaneously as an artistic approach to photography in the Vienna underground scene developed into an international socio-cultural movement – using photography as a creative approach for communicating with, absorbing, and capturing the world. Today, we are a globally active organization dedicated to experimental and creative snapshot photography. Boasting over 500,000 active members across the world, the idea of Lomography encompasses an interactive, democratic, social, cultural, vivid, blurred and crazy way of life. This development is supported and furthered by the creation of special “tools” that were either discovered or specifically designed by us for the Lomographic community. We’re mostly talking affordable snapshot cameras like the Lomo LC-A, the four-lensed Supersampler & Actionsampler, the Colorsplash and Fisheye cameras and the Holga and Horizon cameras. But there’s also a whole assortment of accessories – flashes, tripods, films, fantastic in-house published books and awesome fashion items to discover as well. Check out the whole assortment in our Online Shop.
Lomography & visual culture
The social and visual credo of Lomography has influenced lots of different people – from cultural gurus and creative types to business people, educators and other professionals. There’s also a smattering of celebrities who adore our cameras, including David Byrne, Nobuyoshi Araki, Daft Punk, Bady Minck and the Leningrad Cowboys – just to name a few. The basic Lomographic idea of “don’t think, be fast, be open-minded towards your environment, absorb everything, collect and enjoy being communicative” has spread into an approach that is shared throughout the Lomographic network. This creative premise is based on the playful combination of lo-tech and hi-tech, and the amalgamation of a cultural institution with a commercial photographic and design company. This grants our Lomographic Society an exquisite role in this age of borderless global telecommunications wherever images and visual language are involved.
The Lomography World Archive
Where is all of this going? We are busy beavering away with hundreds of thousands – soon to be millions of Lomographers on the perpetually ongoing Lomographic Sisyphus project: The Lomography World Archive. This archive seeks to document the incredible world around us in a never-ending stream of snapshots – in fact – the biggest and most dazzling snapshot collection on Earth. A collection of millions of the wackiest, most exciting and most impressive sights and moments of our time! Where are these archives? Inside the shoe boxes of Lomographers, stacked on chairs or tables, in cupboards, drawers, albums, on the ceilings and walls, cataloged on computer hard drives, in the vast collections of the Lomographic Embassies and at the Lomographic Society International Central Office in Vienna… and in the highest & most selective quality at the online LomoWorldArchive. In fact, this archive is growing and growing by the minute!
Featured Category
Me, Myself and I
What makes you, you? Show your face. Make an appearance. Show us how you wear it, where, and with what. You get the idea. This should be a portrait of some sort but how you interpret “portrait” is totally up to you.