The L-word

[ffutures]

I re-listed the Nikon body with the word "Lomography" in the heading - since last night it already has more hits than it got in the past week, and one person watching it. Be interesting to see how it ends up.

I can't see any reason why someone wanting to do lomography shouldn't want a decent camera body, they can still fit it with a crappy lens and use it manually for that full lomographic experience. Or am I being a bit cynical?

Comments

[history-monk.livejournal.com]

From five minutes looking at lomographic pictures, the point seems not to be lo-fi as such, but that immediate visual impact takes first, second and third place to technical quality.

Of course, that doesn't keep bad-but-pretentious photographers from claiming they're doing lomography, but if their pictures don't have impact, they aren't doing it well. And claiming their work is too subtle to be appreciated by the uneducated just means they aren't actually doing what they claim. Really, it's just punk photography.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've no problem with impact over technical quality, but why use a replica of a fairly basic 1960s camera when you can pick up an excellent 1990s camera dirt cheap? Never mind the Nikon I'm trying to sell - you can get things like a Mamiya 6x7 for a couple of hundred now, that'll let you do anything it's possible to do with film, including perspective control and extreme macro, and it's a beautiful bit of kit. I know which I'd prefer to use if I was working with film.

[history-monk.livejournal.com]

If you are someone who doesn't like complicated technology - and there are plenty of them - then the simple absence of controls can be helpful. Yes, the Nikon has sensible defaults for everything, but people who aren't technophiles get scared that they'll change something without meaning to.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Fair point.