What is LOMO?

I have always receive many questions asking me about what is LOMO?; Is this a LOMO cam? and etc.

So what EXACTLY is LOMOGRAPHY? (For the wikipedia definition *click* here)

So today I would want to share with you my opinion on what exactly is LOMOGRAPHY and LOMO cameras.

I believe that LOMOGRAPHY is derived from the word LOMO. LOMO is the brand of the 35 mm LOMO LC-A Compact Automat which was introduced in the 1980s. LOMO stands for Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Almalgamation. They are a company set up by the Soviet Union way back in 1914 to manufacture gun sights during World War 1. In a nutshell, they created the legendary LOMO LC-A. LOMO PLC is still in existence in St. Petersburg Russia producing advance optical instruments and various other optical products. They are not producing any LC-A anymore however

So what is LOMOGRAPHY? Basically the term was coined after the people behind LSI (Lomographic Society International) found the LC-A from their holiday trip to Russia and discovered the wonderful pictures it could take (unique, colorful, and sometimes blurry) and decided to share with the whole world.  So with the LC-A they took the world by storm and coin the term LOMOGRAPHY with the reference to the camera and also the pictures produced by it. Soon after that the whole world was talking about LOMOGRAPHY.

Again, what does this all means?

Some argue that LOMO cameras are only those made from the LOMO factory in St. Petersburg or the LC-A produced by the LSI today.

Some argue that only cameras produced by the LSI is considered a LOMO camera including cameras like the Diana, Holga and etc.

As for me, I believe that the term LOMOGRAPHY today has become so popular and so widely use to associate to pictures taken by simple cameras/toy cameras that it is synonymous to describing lo-fi (low fidelity) photography. To me this is like the term “google”. Nowadays, you don’t say “I want to search for…”, but instead “I want to google for…” 

Hence to me any picture that was taken by any simple camera/toy camera is considered to be LOMOGRAPHY and that any simple camera/toy camera is considered a LOMO camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So to me LSI and Superheadz are two different brands producing LOMO cameras. Example the Holga, both brands are producing it. Eventhough there are slight cosmetic difference in their looks, in essence both works and functions the same way, only packaged differently.  I believe there are and will be many more upcoming brands!

In conclusion I consider the LC-A, Blackbird fly, Diana, Holga, UWS and many more as LOMO cameras. 

So after all this, what do you think? Opinions please…

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