Martin Douglas Hendry

What is it?

The Lomo’Instant camera is a new model of camera devised by Russian film revivalists Lomography. Previously Lomography’s camera models (especially the “Diana”) have been found themselves at the fore of renewed interest in film photography – and particularly the use of toy cameras that produce unique images.

The images produced by these cameras are notable for the fact that the images they produce appear “old” and far less faithful to life than more “serious” film cameras. As a consequence the images that they produce are often typified by over saturation, heavy vignetteing, lens distortions, light leaks and other artefacts. Today, these images however appear very quirky – and it seems that this is one of the key selling points of the Lomography movement.

Where before the Lomo movement focused typically on generic film cameras, the Lomo’Instant is the first of their offerings to approach the idea of instant photography – as made iconic by Polaroid during the late 1970s and 1980s.

The camera itself uses FujiFilm’s Instax Mini Film (one of the only available stocks of instant film left) and for all intents and purposes is a modified version of Fuji’s offerings. It is these modifications however that are interesting with Lomography allowing users to take instant pictures with the Lomo’Instant in ways previously not available with historic instant cameras.

These include: interchangeable lenses, multiple exposure mode, bulb mode long exposures (infinite shutter speed), and a range of coloured gel “filters”. The project was successfully funded on Kickstarter on June 27^th 2014 receiving $1,118,333 upon asking for an eleventh of that ($100,000).

Why is it important?

By gauging interesting on Kickstarter for their product prior to its release, Lomography have successfully secured inflated funding for their Instant camera, as well as identifying interest and a customer base before the product was actually put to market. The fact that the project also secured eleven times its minimum funding target is also interesting as it goes someway to proving that not only is there still a demand for Lomography products (and by extension their unique brand of photography) but also specifically for this to be achieved in instant photography.

In this way, Lomography appears to have successfully carved out a niche away from film photography as a serious pursuit, allowing uses to enjoy some of the benefits of “stylised” film photography without the need to operate a film camera.

For the company to then move towards instant photography removes the latency between the user having their images developed – both allowing the user instant gratification (rather than being forced to wait). In addition this makes Lomography’s provision a holistic one. In layman’s terms this means that you don’t have to interact with anything else apart from Lomography’s product to capture and receive the image. This can be seen as quite important with a product that relies so much upon the meanings that are generated through its use – as it is certainly not the “best” film camera in real terms. What this means exactly we’ll discuss in the next section.

How might it affect the Social Camera?

The Influence of Photographic Culture on What We “Want”

For this section of the blog post I will be taking the position of the devil’s advocate. I do not own a Lomography camera, I have not created any images using film photography (except a few made using disposable cameras now and then.) If there is anything within this post or argument which you disagree with or would be interested to contribute to – please do not hesitate to let me know.

That being said – from my perspective I believe that a lot of what makes Lomography rewarding to people is that Lomography cameras represent a lot of cultural values that we associate as being important to photography – but which may not be present (or as present) in our typical relationship with photography today. This I would argue is primarily a consequence of the way in which digital photography has changed the ways we create and “use” photographs today. It is also a very solid and valid basis for a product – no wonder it’s doing so well~!

Lomography in this way turns the volume up to 11 on some of the aspects missing from digital photography today. The most fundamental of these being the creation of a physical artefact (digital images we create now are rarely printed in my experience, as a result of interactions around the image taking place online).

In addition Lomography cameras – and their images – exhibit an amplified “personality” compared to your standard charity shop purchase (mine being an Olympus OM-1) with stark defects in the image exaggerating the filmic qualities of the medium. In this way, (and many more that could be unpacked) Lomography products represent a design articulation of many of the things are still held in high esteem within photography – but packaged as a product for those who are not ready (for one reason or another) to utilize traditional film photography equipment.

The Lomo’Instant on top of this presents these aspects to users with instant gratification of these needs, also adding the cultural cache of Polaroid cameras (seeing the image develop before your eyes etc.) As mentioned in previous posts – our collective understanding of photography is constantly being shaped not only by this kind of historical precedent, but also by the new relationships being innovated between people and images…

The Introduction of Contemporary Tropes and Hobbyism

The Lomo’Instant is interesting in this respect as it not only presents users with a holistic experience of film – and particularly instant – photography, but it also modernises the product somewhat by adding extra functions more typical of the versatility of contemporary photography. Historically instant cameras were automated to the extent where the user simply had to press the button (typically featuring high ISO film and a slave flash for low light situations).

In this case Lomography have introduced a couple of features which appease users who may have been disappointed with the rigidity of the Instant experience (or indeed its similarity to existing products). In this case they have added the ability to produce both long and multiple exposures – allowing experimental photography. This to my mind is without precedent in instant photography. In addition to this Lomography include gels with the camera which produce different “filter” effects reminiscent of Instagram (which itself has played an important role in the emergence of this particular revival).

Whilst it would be a bit tenuous to suggest that these additions are a direct consequence of an archaic camera not meeting the needs of the contemporary user – the fact that these innovations have been added suggest that there is an important relationship being observed between cultural ideas surrounding photography and the benefits of innovation today. That being said – it would appear that we’re past the point of being fooled by skeaumorphism in apps (e.g. having a photograph “develop” on screen within an app) people are producing products that is searching for what is (and isn’t) in photography. A lot of this at the consumer level seems to be to do with a traceable and consistent process and relationship between the image create and the photograph.

More soon…

What do you think though? Leave a comment or start a conversation with me on Twitter at @mdhendry