Contact
Lomographic Society Internationalwww.lomography.com
Hollergasse 41
A-1150 Vienna
Tel.: +43-1-899 44 0
Fax:+43-1-899 44 22
Mail: congress@lomography.com
The LomoWorldWall
Trafalgar Square, London, 17 – 23 September 2007
Participating in the creation of the biggest LomoWorldWall ever is both the avenue to fame and a holy duty for anyone who is part of the Lomography world. We called everyone to take part in the creation of the LomoWorldWall by not only submitting their best shots but also by designing their part of the wall. Therefore we had, for the first time, developed a special online tool to make the competition even more interactive.
What is the story behind this LomoWorldWall?
The year of 2007 brings a special period in the juvenile growth of the addictive and wild, yet totally legal and ever so sweet fruit that is Lomography. This year brings the first flashback of the last ten excitement-filled years! And after a brief pause of some mere ten seconds, we return to another ten years of Lomography in full throttle.
Why the effort? And what’s it all about?
In the year of 1997, at the Lomography World Congress in Madrid, we first announced The Big Lomography Global Event 1997 - 2007: "The great mission that stands above all Lomographic approaches and activities; the Lomographic future project that unites the world of Lomography, the big Lomographic challenge to build the Lomographic utopian dream… creating an all-embracing, most diverse and colourful, most authentic and spectacular Lomographic complete image of the surface of the world of all times."
The Big Lomography Global Event 1997 - 2007 encompassed the following ideas, the following concept, and the following plans:
LomoWorldArchive
LomoWorldCongress
LomoWorldShow
LomoWall / LomoWorldExhibition
And this is what we have done since:
NOTHING, absolutely nothing, a shame for Lomography! We painfully failed you!
Apart from a few humble LomoExhibitions, events with the LomoWorldShow, LomoWorldCongresses, LomoWalls, LomoCompetitions, LomoEmbassy openings, new LomoCamera developments and LomoBook publications, we barely did more than play around on the LomoWorldArchive that now holds about 2 Million snapshots (if we were to count all printed images that we store in the halls of the Lomographic Society Headquarters in Vienna, as well as in our external locations in New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul) as not to say 10 Million snapshots (if we were to add all electronically uploaded pictures that are stored on our servers in Vienna, the United States and Asia), as not to say 20 Million snapshots (if we were to add all those photos lying around in the Lomographic embassies), as not to say 10 Billion, if we were to take into account all Lomographs ever taken with one of our Lomographic cameras and that have since been stored in shoe- and banana boxes, stuck to bathroom- and office walls, displayed in books, newspapers and Hollywood movies, forgotten between stalks of wash, those fallen behind cupboards and forever lost, those tacked into diaries and family albums, those stuck on hairspray cans, forgotten in development labs, still undeveloped...
Completely neglected, however: the ever growing LomoWorldShow, with the ever growing LomoWall, LomoWall, LomoWall, LomoWall, LomoWall!!!!
What happened? Chaos, turmoil, disorder, utter most confusion, unfair competition, money- and bookmakers, greed and don’t-wanna-give, stingy mentality, confusion about photo and LomoWall formats and sizes, materials and construction, nothing fits, no one knows. In short: it doesn't exist, the ONE LomoWorldWall, that one, breathtaking, big, homogeneous LomoWall, that just keeps growing, carefully stored in an air-conditioned, holy, high-security salt mine tunnel-gallery in a disclosed location in the Austrian alps... just millions of single LomoWalls, everywhere and always, nothing fits, all chaos.
That's just bullshit, that's not the way to handle this!
So we sat back down again and came up with a great LomoUpload online tool that gave our Lomographers from all over the world the ultimate chance to build their very own LomoWall. From the hundreds of LomoWall submissions, along with the innumerable offline projects with the embassies communities, artists and designers from all over the world, and different institutions, the best ones were picked out to be part of the LomoWorldWall on Trafalgar Square.
Additionally to the 80.000 images that made up the LomoWorldWall, another 20.000 images were added to the growing section of the Wall, made up of photos shot during the congress week. These parts of the LomoWorldWall were constructed in the daily “Build your LomoWall Sessions”.