lomo

Playing around with trying to embed wmv files. I think it turned out well. I came across these videos 5-6 years ago and thought they were pretty hip in a crude sort of way. Two amateur gaijin videographers in Tokyo walking around with their lomographs macking on chicks and chillin' in Shibuya. They went on to host a gallery exhibit of their work in Japan. (blog: HERE)

BRIEF HISTORY OF LOMOGRAPHY
During the 70s Japan began mass producing cheap yet very high quality cameras. Not to be outdone, Mr Panfiloff, Director of the powerful LOMO Russian Arms and Optical factory, decided - every respectable Communist should have one too, and thus was born the LOMO KOMPAKT AUTOMAT for the pleasure and glory of the Soviet population. It was essentially a really bad copy of it's Japanese counterpart. Nevertheless, the Soviets and their Socialist playmates in Vietnam, Cuba and East Germany snapped happily away throughout the nineteen eighties.

Weakened by dirt cheap, battery-powered imports from Asia, the LC-A's popularity eventually waned, and was available only at quirky, old-school camera shops. It was at an establishment such as this, where a group of Viennese students happened upon the adorable camera, and bought a couple for fun. Back on the resplendent streets of Prague, they zipped through the first few rolls of film: shooting from above and through their legs, shooting from the hip, and even sometimes looking through the viewfinder.

Back in Vienna they soon had the whole bag of film developed at the trusty corner supermarket (super cheapo!) and received a real surprise: Thousands of small, amusing, sad, garish shots of their little tour, wonderful focused and unfocussed images fresh from life in the Czech Republic. The images were amazing, dazzling all those present with a crushing sense of excitement - the likes of which they had never felt before.

Soon, the best sources (and worst-guarded security posts) of the former Eastern Bloc were employed for the clandestine import of these little wonders. The Lomographic Society (Lomographische Gesellschaft) was soon founded in Vienna, with the aim of spreading the message of LOMOGRAPHY throughout the globe.

Truly, the whole progression was more spontaneous and hyperactive than could have ever been planned - a vibrant community grew without bounds; driven by the insatiable thirst for wild, vibrant, shocking images.

Since then, this POS excuse of a camera has gone on to become that fashion item that no discerning hipster can live without with it's cheap plastic body and unpredictably garish color output.