LOMOGRAPHY AT PHOTOKINA Cologne 2008
'THE FUTURE IS ANALOGUE'
The Lomographers and the Analogue Photography
To begin stands our proposal to explore the Lomographers ways:
The entirety of Lomography affiliated people around the world is known as the Lomographers: A wild, independent bunch of astonishing people who thirst for excitement and hunger for pictures. Lomographers share a common goal - to look at the world through the analogue eye of the Lomographic lens, weaving their individual views into the growing fabric of the Lomographic Picture Universe. The Lomographic community today consists of over one million members: they all have chosen analogue photography in general, and Lomography in the particular, as their form of creative communication.
But the essence of Lomographers’ choice lies in the analogue lifestyle and existence itself. Lomographers are creative analogue snapshot photo-artists; they focus on the act of photographing in itself, the social interactions and the resulting images on the good old, real print. Lomography stands for an analogue form of creative action. In fact, they themselves individually influence the creative process of this action. They apply the challenging hands-on experience and philosophy of Lomography to use photography as an approach to a curious, direct, experimental, inventive and imaginative way of being.
Lomographers appreciate the specific and persuading creative qualities of analogue photography - ranging from the strong colours, to the unique atmosphere and to image resolution but, most importantly, the never-ending exhilarating techniques and possibilities that methods such as cross processing, multiple exposure, different film types (including out-dated film), under and over exposure, light leaks and more have to offer. A whole new aspect is given with the endless selection of different Lomographic cameras as well as a 100-year repertoire of film cameras that history has created. Chance and accident play a big role in the act of Lomographic shooting: there is no control, no way of knowing the final result until the final print is in your hand. The shots thereby have a very distinct and unique touch, increasing the personal and authentic aspect of the images.
Though working predominantly with analogue techniques, Lomographers are not opposed to the digital aspect as a communication tool, just on the contrary, they have always been by and large THE ones to know about, investigate and trial the latest of technology. By their various activities on the online platform of Lomography, from scanning the negatives to uploading them on the personal LomoHome to commenting on others images and communicating online on tips and tricks of Lomographic expertise or the secret spots on ones hometown - Lomographers are open for everything, but analogue communication, documentation and real film is what they love.
Through a steadily growing number of Lomographers over the last 15 years (about 1 Million active Lomographers up to date) and their activities on- and offline, but also from a number of surveys, we have noticed a strong encouragement of Lomography developments by a young generation who have grown up with digital benefits and nonetheless, or maybe hence, feel the uniqueness of analogue photography that can never be out taken completely in its directness and personal aspect.
But more than that, the stories told by the Lomographers’ pictures (5 Million images in the Lomography World Archive, all in all about 1 Billion up to date) focus on an analogue world: love and pride, family and friends, life and death, movement and ideas, sex and fun, feelings and stories.
The Lomographers and the Analogue Photography
The Lomographers and the Analogue Future - the "Analogue vs. Digital 2008" online survey
We are living in a digital age, this is a fact. When considering contemporary phenomena like digital life and digital death the question remains: what is left to be analogue nowadays? Moreover, what actually is "analogue" and what is "digital"? Despite their popular use, these fairly modern concepts had yet to be fully explored within popular culture.
Etymologically, “ANALOGUE” has its roots in the 16th century and the exegesis of this word allows a number of synonyms that can be relevant to Lomographic action. These synonyms include: accordant, adequate, appropriate, suitable, befitting, proper, pursuant, conform, congruent, corresponding, opportune, fitting, harmonious, congenial, transferable, analogous, comparable, modifiable, equal and direct.
We believe in an analogue future and let ourselves be guided from our feeling that the world of photography brings with it a whole new era of analogue, not lastly due to the Lomographers. To achieve a picture of the Lomographers association to “analogue,” and so to continue in the search of bringing more analogue tools and visions into play, we started, within the international Lomographic community, a poll on this subject. We wanted to know what the Lomographers associate with the terms analogue and digital; how they think about themselves and how they consider the future. We did not expect to attain an ultimate and complete analysis through the results of the survey, but we wanted to open up a base for discussion and development.
A total of 2290 people participated in the Lomography „Analogue versus Digital 2008“ online survey, held in July 2008 on www.lomography.com, out of which the average participant bears the following attributes: she/he is between 20 and 40 years old (50% is 25 or younger, 50% is older than 25), with a high level of education (the vast majority has a university degree or is a university student), she/he is a hyperactive individual who travels more than the average person and is a very active Lomographer. The male/female rate is balanced (55% male/45% female) and 62% (a slim majority) of participating Lomographers consider their lifestyle to be mostly analogue, 38% mostly digital. Almost all of them use the internet very extensively; the vast majority communicates a lot on social websites too. Details about the online survey see below.
Life, warmth, beauty, durability, and excitement are some of the notions which a vast majority of Lomographers definitely consider to be clearly. Contra wise, the concepts of fast, automatic, convenient, efficient, fake/copy and mobile are predominantly understood as being digital.
It is remarkably interesting that the majority of Lomographers consider the future to be digital. However, exactly the same people voted for the most essential things in life as analogue: love, sex, beauty, fun and creativity were considered by a huge majority as being purely analogue. Dear Lomographers, now you leave us in deep despair. When all these wonderful things are still analogue, then your predicted digital future must be the most boring, dull, ugly, austere and loveless of all times. Is the digital future really the place you want to live in?
We certainly do not! Moreover, when considering the groundbreaking results of the survey we can not help ourselves to believe that the future will be analogue. Otherwise we wouldn’t want to live (and lomograph) on this planet anymore. It seems that the most essential and beautiful things in life are still analogue. And as such they have to be maintained in the future! It is therefore our Lomographic mission to create all necessary products and set all actions and activities to keep the future analogue - and you, dear friend, are heartily invited to join us. The analogue future looks bright ahead!
The Lomographers' International Online Competition
The first Lomographic research phase lead from the survey to a world wide online competition call under the title “The Future is Analogue” in July 2008 www.lomography.com/photokina. After the thorough consideration of the subject matter, Lomographers were invited to pitch their images into the race: individual approaches and examples of the analogue essence, the capabilities of their analogue tools, the wide spectrum of their experiments with film and light, and their vision for the analogue future. What does analogue & digital mean to you, we asked. 15 analogue categories were at disposal for a rumble inspired by the survey on “The Future Is Analogue”.
As usual, thousands of submissions from all over the world were uploaded on the Lomography online platform. These pictures were inspired by the most mutual associations in the survey; but Lomographers also uploaded pictures of different times and thus, created an image of analogue beyond doubt analogue epoch of photography. It was a great project in numbers and quality for www.lomography.com and it definitely was an incredible material for the exhibition at the Photokina 2008.
Lomography Analogue Lounge at the Photokina 2008: Exhibition & programmes
For the Photokina in September 2006, which focused on the turn from the analogue to the digital world of Photography, Lomography was purposely invited into this strain of tension to present the distinctive role of evidence in global analogue photography. Accordingly, we presented our “Analogue Counterrevolution” Lomography show and demonstrated, through the tens of thousands of submitted Lomographs, that we have no reason to fret about the future of analogue photography. Thanks to the Photokina management, we could yet again present the newest insights of Lomography during the Grande Dame – the biggest world fair of the image – and took it a step further by proposing: The Future is Analogue!
The results of the research of the analogue capital of Lomographers worldwide and their visions of the analogue past, present AND future were revealed to the public at the Photokina 2008 for the first time. On a 500 m2 central space on the fair’s grounds, plus a special workshopping area, the Lomography Analogue Lounge served as a philosophical and creative presentation of the works of the international peak of analogue photography artists, an introduction to the brand new assortment of the Lomographic camera world as well as a location for interactive analogue programmes and performances. The Photokina visitor experienced a complete view into the analogue world, both intellectual and artistic! The lounge also invited as a meeting-point before, during and after rummaging through the excessive selection of the fair; workshops, lectures and podium discussions with international Lomography experts, interesting individuals of culture and art and all those with love for an analogue world. And - the Lomography bar had been celebrating happy hour every evening from 5 PM to 8 PM, with the finest drinks and great live analogue music.
Contact:
Katja Kulidzhanova
katja@lomography.com
+43-1-89944650
The Lomographic Society International