Lomography World Congress London

Photo Diary

Contact

Lomographic Society International
www.lomography.com
Hollergasse 41
A-1150 Vienna
Tel.: +43-1-899 44 0
Fax:+43-1-899 44 22
Mail: congress@lomography.com

Monday 17^th September

1. 10:00-14:00 at MP2
   Lomo Green Shoot

   Helen Errington

2. 10:00-14:00 at MP3
   Waterloo Sunset

   Maya Newman

3. 14:00-17:00 at MP1
   Exhibition Opening on Trafalgar Square

   Lomography Team, Ben Evans, Julie Lomax, Gerald Matt

4. 19:00-21:00
   Reception at Austrian Embassy London

   Upon Invitation Only

5. 21:00-open
   London Design Festival Opening

   Check Design Festival Programme

6. 00:00-open
   Lomo After Midnight →

   Cat Ong

Tuesday 18^th September

1. 10:00-13:00 at MP5
   The Making of a Good Exhibition

   Gerald Matt

2. 10:00-14:00 at MP3
   Lomo Green Shoot

   Helen Errington

3. 10:00-14:00 at MP6
   Human Scavenger Hunt

   Julia Svetlova

4. 13:00-15:00 at MP5
   LomoSocial

   Severin Matusek & Dejan Petrovic

5. 14:00-17:00 at MP4
   Urban Symbols

   BA Students Of Photography, CSM

6. 12:00-15:00 at MP3
   Brick Walls

   Adam Scott

7. 13:00-18:00 at MP1
   Real Time Stories

   Boz Temple-Morris

8. 17:00-19:00
   Build Your Lomo Wall session

9. 20:00-open
   Lomo Dinner, Club Crawling

Wednesday 19^th September

1. 05:00-08:00 at MP4
   ← Morning Feast

   Karen Hall

2. 10:00-14:00 at MP2
   Lomo Green Shoot

   Helen Errington

3. 12:30-15:00 at MP3
   Broaden Your Horizon

   Igor Bararon

4. 14:00-17:00 at MP4
   Graffiti Halls of Fame

   Nik Ninety

5. 17:00-19:00
   Build Your Lomo Wall session

6. 15:00-17:00 at MP5
   How to publish a Good Book

   Eduard Booth Clibborn

7. 20:00-open
   Lomo Dinner, Club Crawling

8. 14:00-16:30 at MP4
   Calming Waters

   Linda Scott

9. 10:00-12:30 at MP3
   Lomography & Advertisement

   Pasquale Caprile

Thursday 20^th September

1. 10:00-14:00 at MP2
   Lomo Green Shoot

   Julia Svetlova

2. 10:00-13:00 at MP5
   Chronicles of the LCA Saga

   Cat Ong

3. 10:00-13:00 at MP3
   Articulated Architecture

   Mukul Patel & Saju Hari

4. 10:00-13:00 at MP2
   Holga Coup

   Peter Boesch

5. 16:00-19:00 at MP3
   The Unknown Known

   Alex Graham

6. 17:00-19:00
   Build Your Lomo Wall session

7. 20:00-open at National Gallery
   Lomo Dinner, Club Crawling

´

8. 00:00-open
   Lomo After Midnight →

   Mike Kuhle

Friday 21^st September

1. 10:00-13:00 at MP2
   Lomography & Advertisement

   Pasquale Caprile

2. 10:00-13:00 at MP2
   The Russians

   Alexander Djikia

3. 10:00-14:00 at MP2
   Lomo Green Shoot

   Helen Errington

4. 13:00-16:00 at MP2
   The Diana Dialogue

   Mike Kuhle

5. 14:00-16:00 at MP5
   Lomography & Eternity

   Martin Rheinhardt

6. 16:00-18:00 at MP5
   Big Brother City

   Manu Luksch

7. 17:00-19:00
   Build Your Lomo Wall session

8. 20:00-22:00 at MP2
   Lomo Dinner

9. 22:00-open at MP2
   Lomo Party

   featuring G.rizo

Saturday 22^nd September

1. 11:00-13:00 at MP6
   Pinhole Photography

   Justin Quinnel

2. 15:00-17:00 at MP6
   t.b.c.

   Fabian Monhein

3. 13:00-15:00 at MP6
   Through the Memory Album

   Lora Power

4. 14:00-16:30
   Calming Waters

   City Challenge

5. 15:00-17:00 at MP5
   Big Brother City

   Manu Luksch

6. 17:00-19:00 at MP1
   Final Lomo World Wall Presentation

7. 19:00-21:00 at MP3
   Lomo Dinner

8. 21:00-open at MP2
   Big Final Party

   featuring Handsome Hank & DJ Peter fröm Austria, Visuals by Lomography

Sunday 23^rd September

1. 12:00-14:00
   From Camden Market with Love

   Carolyn Thompson

2. 14:00-16:00 at Hyde Park 'Speaker's Corner'
   Lomo Farewell Picknick & Lomo Talks

3. 14:00-16:00 at MP6
   Lomo & Fashion Design

   Wendy & Jim

* Congress members will be informed of all changes on-site via daily updates.

Workshops

Special Lomography Workshops provide insight into the hottest Lomographic expertise and the chance to experiment beyond the borderlines with the crème de la crème of Lomographers. The workshops feature everything to do with Lomography; from the basic photography skills, the exploitation of the 10 Golden Rules of Lomography, through the whole pallet of the craziest techniques. The selected coaches of the workshops are most excellent Lomographers and Photographers from different parts of the world. Some of the workshops will also lead to city-challenges. So, whether you are new to the world of Lomography or an experienced Lomographer keen to learn more about the secrets of Lomography, you should not miss these workshops! All workshop participants have the opportunity to create their own LomoWalls in LomoWallBuildingSessions with the images they shot and submit them for the growing LomoWall on Trafalgar Square.

Michael Kuhle

THE DIANA DIALOGUE

An introduction to the Diana Camera

Created in the 1960's, the Diana, a medium format camera, is one of the most iconic lo-fi analogue cameras ever created. It enjoyed a massive cult following for the better part of 30 years - and with good reason! Its surreal and imaginary images are second to none. Fasten your seatbelt for a whirlwind learning tour about the Diana's illustrious history and its global community of devoted shooters. Michael Kuhle will present the Diana and chronicle the world around it.

Lomo After Midnight

LCA+ for advanced revellers

When the lights go down, the band strikes up, and the party kicks in - your Lomo's Minitar 1 lens is ready to shine! Whether you're more an LC-A or an LC-A+ person, you're armed with what is one of the greatest nightlife and live music snapshot tools known to mankind. Learn to master the art of the perfect long-exposure, the stunning flash portrait, and the "what the hell" streak-and-blur-and-flash riot.

Following a brief intro, we'll hit the night-time streets of London to put this blazing hot new knowledge into practice.

Michael Kuhle’s will take LCA lovers and night owls through a workshop stroll, customized for those who can’t get enough of the secrets of Lomography action.

Michael Kuhle is based in New York. Since he has joined the Lomographic Society in 2001, his trigger finger probably hasn't enjoyed a moment's rest. As the Lomography Online Sales Director, product consultant, English-language wrangler, and test photographer, he wears a lot of hats within the organization. Out of the 10 Golden Rules he is primarily a "Take Your Camera Everywhere You Go" kind of guy. Or, in his case, take several cameras. His aching lower back will attest to that.

www.lomohomes.com/michaelkuhle

Helen Errington

Green Shoot

A very fine overture to the world of Lomography

Are you new to Lomography? Wondering what the heck this is all about? Did it make your eye glint and flutter with imagination, like a small tickle on the back of your neck? Well, you just took your very first mental steps towards your first Lomographic experience! CONGRATULATIONS! OK, take a deep breath & here we go. The low down, you hipster, shapes up something like this:

This is a workshop primarily designed to cater to those who find themselves strangely curious and feel the allure of the plastic calling them, those wanting and waiting to know more about the world of Lomography. The workshop is an introductory fun-packed guide to the 10 'rules' of the Lomographic philosophy and the tools that go with it, designed to ease the user into a delicious warm bath scenario - relaxed & smiling - wide eyed and excited. A true adventure to the other side of photography - an analogue paradise dripping with excitement & anticipation.

Please wear comfortable shoes, no pets allowed and please, no Hawaiian shirts. After some inspiring theory we will set off to a typical LomoWalk.

We welcome Lomography Green Shoots with open arms, legions of Lomographic snatches and some faint noises of rattling jewellery. Please ignore the nose hair!

Helen Errington, alias Scootiepye, Lomographic Ambassador of New Castle, says, most of her life she has been travelling the world instead of studying anything specific for any length of time. We would rather describe multi-language and photography expert Helen, with the eccentric and hearty personality, as an analogue purist and a Lomographic freak, über-experienced in running Lomographic workshops and hosting events, and surely one of the queens of the Lomo web world.

Igor Bararon

Broaden Your Horizon

It was only in some rare moments of my life that I did not have some sort of recording device with me. Not because I am a technology freak, but because it is important to me to provoke the story and to remember it. I was distinguished for my acute memory of past events, people, numbers, more or less stupid details; and my memory is still lasting. I have always been interviewing a lot of people in audio and on video. At one point I started to record these stories also through photography, as I felt it was a more sovereign, heavy duty, factual, and steady medium.

I decided to use the Lomographic tools and methods for their simplicity. The Lomography Horizon camera had a striking quality to me: the format. Within its wide angle, you get more than one vertical niche. Within those niches, you can fit different stories simultaneously and create a contrast. And in most stories, the contrast between the subjects and the environment is a very important factor. Like static vs. movement, happy vs. sad, sharp vs. foggy, tree vs. car. Like in real life, different entities can inhabit the same space with completely different moods, intentions and needs. And they can both fit into a single Horizon snapshot and thus communicate within the picture.

The panorama format provides enough space to embrace the different parallel existences. Parallel stories are captured in motion, in transit, and frozen on the two extremities of the image. These are the moments when the history of one life has just ended and the next story is yet to begin. I always had an obsession with controlling the composition when filming, and while Horizon photography endorses my love for the 'wider,' it presents a challenge to me as I no longer have the option of controlling the process. With the Horizon camera there are always surprises.

The buzz sound that the Horizon makes as you take the picture often provokes some reaction of the subject/person/animal of your shot; people get closer, they show interest. In my case, this is as an essential point, as communication with the others is the prolonged arm of my life vocation. I have the deep (original) need to interact with myself and exist through being involved in relation to somebody else and his stories.

My workshop for the Lomography Congress is about fitting different energies and stories within the same picture frame. This workshop will be an experience for the Lomographers joining me (as well as for myself), to explore the possibilities that the wide spring lens can offer. We will work with different and opposite elements within the same picture frame; opposite sides and opposite sentences and standing points. We will be our own models, and we will relate to different things in our surrounding and when it’s done, we will shoot the photo.

Igor Bararon was born in Sarajevo. He studied dramaturgy at the University of Performing Arts in Bologna, and has worked on different documentary and short films since 1997 throughout Europe. Today he lives and works as a filmmaker in Vienna. But most of all Igor is a story-teller. His workshop will provide a special insight in panorama photography. Igor has also contributed a project with Horizon images for the LomoWorldWall.

Pasquale Caprile

Advertising Loves Lomo

What the hell is an advertising photographer (specialised in still life, where nothing "moves" and everything on the picture looks perfect) doing, using a little black Russian camera with a beautiful eye, perfect meter and with a funny name - a Lomo camera?

Pasquale Caprile’s daily craft with professional commercial and art photography has been infiltrated with Lomography ever since he first came across it 12 years ago. In his constant experimental approach with mixing different techniques, forms and arts, he never left the Lomographic influence too far.

What happened to Pasquale? Why did he go crazy with Lomography? What makes the difference? The workshop explores the relationship between his advertising work and his way of making Lomographic images. Pasquale will present the merging of Lomography with the advertising mod through personal work and examples. But he claims that his workshop will also be hard work for the participants. The task : full creativity, using the Lomographic tools to compose the best Lomographs to sell the best quality of a product.

In simple maths: 1 Film + Lomographic Tools + 1 Product = Advertising LomoStyle Campaign. The 3 best campaigns will get the honour and the glory of a very special diploma in LomoAdvertisingMasterOfPhotography.

Pasquale Caprile is a photographer from Madrid. Together with his wife, Cristina Caprile, he is the founder of one of the first Lomography Embassies in the world. They both cooperated in organizing the 1 st Lomography Congress in Madrid in 1997.

www.pasqualecaprile.com
www.lomospain.com

Julia Svetlova

‘What is it like to be a bat?’

Julia’s Human Scavenger Hunt

Julia’s workshop will take off by going through all the spot lights of the Lomography history and community network, followed by some nifty hard-core Lomographers tricks on and off the technical spectrum.

But mainly it shall be a role-playing exercise in the playhouse of Lomographers that is the world; a challenge for both beginners and advanced Lomographers. Each participant will draw a number that symbolizes the role he is assigned to and directs his shooting mode. A “worm” must shoot all his pictures from down-low, a “giant” will have to look down on the world from above, a “bat” will be bound to its sonaric competence, a “four year old child” will have to act accordingly 4-year-old (not only in camera height but also in the wonderment of discovering the common-place) while a “drunk” will have difficult times holding the camera still. Also the cameras to use will be chosen at random. The process will be repeated at lunchtime to give everyone a wider experience of different role-play and cameras.

“When you start this exercise, you will probably feel a bit weird and observed, crawling around on the floor or hanging over balconies. If you concentrate on finding exciting angles and the right moments, you'll quickly forget about everyone else around you. Be afraid to take boring pictures rather than having unsuccessful ideas or experiments.” - Julia Svetlova.

During the wall building session, the group will get back together to discuss their work.

Julia Svetlova, alias Neja, originally from Lithuania, lives in St. Petersburg, studied Media Art and Spanish Philology at the St-Petersburg State University, and recently did a Postgraduate in Photography at the University of the Arts in London. She lives her life like a good old school professional traveller through the world and has never missed a LomoTrip or a big Lomo project. Julia rarely has no colourful story to tell; she wears her heart on her sleeve and strawberries on her belt. As one of the most active, passionate and refined Lomographers yet, her workshop will offer a real Lomographic approach, including the surprises that are typical to her enigmatic and never resting nature.

www.lomohomes.com/neja

Peter Boesch

Holga Coup

Insights to the World Through A Plastic Lens

The Holga is most probably your favorite piece of plastic. If this is the case, Peter Boesch’s workshop is a must. It will unveil to you more possibilities of the miraculous middle format camera that has reawakened so many people’s vision and created their obsession for the Holga’s gleaming plastic lens, its foolish too-big body, its mind-blowing 120 film format, and its sheerly beautiful dreamlike images.

Going beyond basics, Mr. Boesch draws off his ridiculous experiences on how to exploit the Holga, getting more picture for your pennies. Fake panorama shots, double exposures, cross processed or not. Transform your Holga with the craziest of modifications! Night time, day time, tea time, you are the Chef. A crisp roll of film, a pinch of sunlight, some batteries are all the ingredients you need. The Holga is the perfect soul mate for a tasty life less binary. Miam, miam.

Once the photos are cooked (yes, we continue with this cuisine analogy), the apprentices will arrange the resulting workshop pictures in a mouth-watering LomoWall fashion and serve them to the eyes of those beholding! Bon Appetite!

Peter Boesch, alias Ringo, acquired his creativity studying international business administration in Austria and Denmark. A Lomographer since 1998, happenstance has swept him to Paris, where his engaged as the L’Ambassadeur Lomographique. Peter is also a music photographer and a Soul-“DJ” and co-host of the infamous Pop In Open Mic. And Peter is not Heinz (the twin brother, who will be scratching the turn tables with Peter at the big Lomo Party). Peter will also be supported in his workshop by Manfred Steininger, alias Mandi, the specialist from the HQ LomoWorldArchive.

www.lomohomes.com/ringo
www.lomohomes.com/mandi

Cat Ong

Chronicles of the Lomo Kompakt Automat Saga

The LC-A+ was introduced in 2006, 12 years after the original LC-A was launched by Lomography. The story of the LCA is out of the ordinary in almost 200 years of photographic history. A charming low-tech piece that, in fact, has been a bit out-date even at the time of its production in the 80’s U.S.S.R, was brought back to the world’s Lomographers, and re-produced when the Russian production came to an end. For many people it symbolized a new direction of analogue photography at the change of the century.

As the baby sitter of the new LC-A+, Cat Ong knows quite a bit about it. He will introduce the “Making Of” the project and lead into the niftiest secrets and techniques of the camera. But naturally Cat’s workshop will challenge the LC-A friends to the outmost of what is possible with the camera and collaborate with them in a LomoWall for Trafalgar square.

Cat Ong lives and works in Hong Kong. His life story reads like this: ‘I am born in the same month as the Canon AF35M, in Kowloon/Hong Kong near the production town of the Holga and the Diana. I bought my first camera at the age of 10; after that the situation totally lost control and I started to collect, eat and sleep with cameras. In 2000 I met the LC-A while I was studying in Beijing. In 2001 I began dating the Horizon 202 during an exchange programme in Coventry in the UK. Later I worked as a journalist and, again, was involved in writing little stories about camera history. In 2006 I got my dream job as a product developer at the Lomographic Society International. What do I do there? Of course, again, cameras, cameras, cameras .......’

Maya Newman

Waterloo Sunset

As someone who is both a musician and a visual artist, I have often been both frustrated & intrigued by the huge difference in approach between the two forms of expression. Music, for me, is largely instinctive and organic. Visual Arts have a lot of process and are largely conceptual.

It was not until I discovered Lomography that I found a way of making visual art that could satisfy my need for an instinctive, authentic and organic approach. Where I make the connection between Lomography and music, is in the way I can be unbound in my expression in both.

Ever since I started Lomography, I got used to having cameras with me every time I left the house, can't imagine life without them. I feel much more at home with the "don't think" way of doing art! Coming from that, I am not sure if my workshop is about teaching or more along the lines of - go out there, shoot and have fun! The participants will be introduced to a list of ten songs (these may or may not be about London) and challenged to shoot along the chosen song’s themes.

Maya Newman, alias Malka Spigel, a native Israeli, lives and works as a musician, music producer and visual artist in London. Founding member and bassist of Minimal Compact, an Israeli/Dutch group based in Amsterdam and Brussels in the '80s, she later collaborated on the band Oracle and the label Swim Record and has released several solo albums since. Maya also hosts a monthly radio show on Radio Col HaCampus on 106FM in Tel Aviv and has been extensively involving Lomography in her work and daily life.

www.lomohomes.com/Maya_Newman

CITY CHALLENGES

Traditional Lomo city-challenges all over the world offer a shooting duty roster walk on the wild side per se. The attendees are introduced to London by highly condensed and exhaustively commentated strolls through the styles and lifestyles of this city and draconian treasure hunts through resplendent and distinct locations. With these Lomographic city-challenge tours through the boroughs of London, intense glimpses beyond the facades of London and into its deeper aspects, as well as a wild chase around the city is guaranteed, with pictures to take, people to meet, clues to find and mysteries to unravel. Outstanding places, amazing strolls, controversial city themes and secret ways of the homeless are part of the programme. Across the board, the pathfinders who will guide us through the city are people who devote their lives to the scrutiny of social and cultural phenomena and of course, have their very special Lomography history. At the end of all this, the expected burst of the most excellent Lomographic images of London will be included in the growing exhibition of the big LomoWorldWall.

Manu Luksch

Big Brother City

1. smile! 2. shoot back!

With its 5 million CCTV cameras, London is the most surveilled city on Earth. Londoners are more or less continuously filmed from the moment they step out of their homes: crossing at red when rushing to work, peeping into the neighbour’s newspaper on the double-decker, cursing the queue at the ATM, picking up the extra pack of ciggies at the corner shop, or swimming off that chocolate bar in the public swimming pool.

Artist-activist and film-maker Manu Luksch abused the CCTV network to make Faceless, a science fiction film shot entirely with existing cameras. Over a five year period, Manu acted out scenes under CCTV cameras around London; the recordings were then recovered under the Data Protection Act. CCTV controllers erased the faces of other parties in the frame to protect their privacy as required by EU law ­- this is the real basis of the fictive facelessness. In the 'Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers', Manu describes the essence of the art of unearthing surveillance recordings, of how to tap into the 'closed circuit' of the gazing apparatus.

The Big Brother city challenge introduces the state of surveillance in London by means of a cam-spotting walk. Manu will share her secrets on how to discover even the most camouflaged camera, and chat about her experience of being a 'data subject' in London. Once aware of the uncountable, ever-hungry peeping lenses, you might change the way you look through yours. Wear your best smile on the tour-de-cam from the East End through the City and down to the Thames - and shoot back!

For the urban tour, Manu will add an 11th rule for Lomographers ­- every image must contain a CCTV camera in the frame. But given the density of cameras in London, this is hardly a restriction!

Manu Luksch, Vienna-born, London-based film-maker, works outside the frame:

Her productions explore collaborative and process-led ways of working, networked and interdisciplinary structures to expand cinematic narrative and viewing conditions. Manu's most recent work is the film FACELESS, a CCTV sci-fi fairy-tale produced under the rules of the 'Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers'. The manifesto states, amongst other things that additional cameras are not permitted at filming locations, as omnipresent existing video surveillance (CCTV) is already in operation. The manifesto refers to the Data Protection Act 1998 (which gives the subjects of data records access to copies of the data) and to related privacy legislation (compliance which obliges data controllers to erase faces of third parties in the footage).

Alex Graham

The Unknown Known

The man who became famous amongst Lomographers long before he made the BBC film ‘The Lomo Camera’ in 2004, whose charming, people-loving and adventurous personality one could not imagine the Lomo journeys to all corners of the Earth without, the man who knows the very heart of the Lomo species, the man who has spent his life around telling stories of the arts…

This man! Again; we can’t find him! At the time of publication, his text had not reached the Lomography HQ. But we are sure, 1 Million percent, that his City Challenge through London that will introduce his Lomo friends to his personal spots, will be a drop-dead gorgeous city challenge, which will leave you in wonder and make your day!

Alexander Djikia

The Russians – an investigation mission

Let's get serious now. Let's get philosophical. It's time. Do you believe in the existence of evil? Or do you think it is only a delusion? What kind of world are we living in? Lomographers do care.

Let's face it: we have already overcome times of plague and locust, crusades, slavery, segregation, great floods, communism, several meteorite rains and multiple eclipses, concentration camps, cold wars and world wars, the Y2K, hag hunting, Imperator Caligula and Tsar Ivan the terrible, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam - just to name a few. We always have something to fight for - and against. What would we do if we were to wake up one morning and discover that we do not have enemies? Would we create them for ourselves? Should we, for example, talk about the menace of terrorism on the global scale so emphatically, that bigger groups of people will start participating in this world-wide play? Should we start a war to add some spice to a hide-and-seek game? Should we suspect our neighbour until he notices it and does something to meet our expectations? Who is in charge of evil? God, the devil, us people, wrong upbringing, astrological influences, non-determinate behaviour of particles, secret governments, aliens, deceitful ideas or laws of evolution?

Who, if not Lomographers, can find out? That is why we decided to start a lodge (do not tell anybody about it, it is the world's toppest secret, enemies are surrounding us, we should be discrete and united, so - hushhhh).

We are armed with our Lomo cameras and rituals. They help us focus our view and stay sharp about what is going on around us. They help us be objective and to collect information. We are not exposed but we are masters of exposure. They supply us with power and influence.

Our viewfinders give us the opportunity to scratch the surface and detect it; to stare fixedly at the reality and reflect it; to find the truth.

We Lomographers are all over the world, and there are more and more of us by the day. Conspiracy requirements, and the sheer quantity of agents, resulted in us not knowing all the LomoLodge members by face. But we can give you a hint on how to recognize each other: Every Lomographer has the miracle power of developing positive from the negative, and that is our way of solving the eternal questions of good and evil.

Our missioners will gather in England in September following the request of our London LomoLodge, to clarify the burning question: who are those 200.000 Russians that inhabit the British capital? Are they invaders or did they just come for the shopping? Do they always add polonium to the wasabi? Do they like dogs or cats? These beautiful Russian girls who are hanging out in the fancy bars and restaurants, are they on a mission? Are they all blondes? How does one tell buckwheat from caviar? What is the difference between Kazaks and Royal guards? Do they drink vodka in the morning? In short: who are these Russians and what do they want? Should native Brits be alert? Are they, the Russians, dangerous, wild, and suspicious? And how do we deal with them, if it is worth doing so at all? It is obvious that only a person with a Lomo camera is able to find the right answers to these unresolved questions.

Alexander Djikia

Alexander Djikia, is a Georgian artist who was one of the first Lomographers on Earth. The former Lomo Ambassador to Russia and expert on Russian issues is known in wide circles of art and photography lovers as Djikia. After a few years of teaching arts at the Bilkent University in Ankara he is now back living in Moscow. In his City Challenge he will lead us through this secret and dangerous investigation mission to develop the negative into the positive.

http://web.mac.com/djikia/iWeb/Site/

Mukul Patel, Saju Hari

Articulated Architecture

A man, a plan, a canal ­- Panama?

No, London.

Artist and canal-side resident Mukul Patel takes Lomographers on a 6.5km walk along the towpath of Regents Canal from Angel, Islington, passing through leafy moorings, construction sites, industrial zones, artists' quarters, the oldest public park in London, an eco-centre, and battlegrounds of the Far Right, ending up in the bizarre new financial centre of the Docklands.

Uncharted locations of a rapidly-changing city are brought to life through the movements of contemporary dancer and choreographer, Saju Hari. Over designed forms and decay, the quotidian and the extraordinary ­beauty and ugliness are found in unexpected locations, and are questioned and commented upon by the dancer's body.

The towpath of Regents Canal is a thread through London's past and a route along which can be glimpsed its future. Here, houseboat meets loft, cycling commuters meet police helicopters, swans cruise around drowned motorbikes, willow trees weep over rusty locks, and the water reflects Victorian warehouses, Hitchcock's studios, and hypermodern skyscrapers. This is the city as a perfect stage.

Along the way, Saju Hari makes short site-specific movement pieces at spectacular locations. Participants are invited to use his intervention as a point of focus or contrast, a framing device, a source of motion blur, a body against which to measure buildings. Collaging dance and architecture, the city challenge spawns new narratives of the city.

Mukul Patel is artistic co-director (together with Manu Luksch) of Ambient Information Systems, a crucible for hybrid media critical art practice. Works primarily with sound and text; influences range from Indian classical music and Steve Reich's idea of 'gradual process' to the work of OuLiPo. As a composer he collaborates extensively with choreographers (eg. Russell Maliphant, Akram Khan and the Ballet Boyz) and explores sound fields in public space works (including two pieces for Trafalgar Square).

www.ambientTV.NET
www.lomohomes.com/mukul

Saju Hari works with international companies and choreographers including Shobana Jeyasingh and Akram Khan. Trained in the South Indian martial art form Kallaripayattu and in contemporary movement, Saju''s work unselfconsciously bridges ages and cultures. Saju and Mukul have collaborated on several contemporary dance pieces.

Boz Temple Morris

Real Time Stories

An imaginable journey through Trafalgar Square will tackle you to unearth its mysteries and photograph them. You’ll be given a walkman and be invited to enter a story narrated by a voice inside your head. As you’re guided to various points in the square, events in the story will unfold around you and the sounds from the tape and the real sounds from the square will descend into each other. The voice is prompting you to take pictures and, thus, you yourself will be recording another story through your images and add to the real time transformation of the place.

Boz Temple Morris sets his challenge at the labyrinth of the LomoWorldWall in Trafalgar Square and applies the principles of Lomography to an audio experience. Using analogue equipment and allowing for actual and real-time sound to accidentally mix with the recorded sound, he explores the process of taking Lomographs to transform the experience within a place. The views and the shots of the participants in this challenge will differ from each other since each listener will be following a different path of the Square. The story someone is listening to will be re-lived through the images that he takes whilst listening to it. One story becomes many stories.

Boz Temple Morris is a London based director, producer and consultant. As joint artistic director of the experimental theatre company Primitive Science, he worked across Europe exploring new forms across different media. His latest project, Holy Mountain, is an arts organisation for audio drama, film and live arts. For his city-challenge project he is joined by sound artist and DJ Alisdair McGregor known for his work on London’s art radio station Resonance 104.4FM.

www.boztemplemorris.com

Adam Scott

Brick Walls

I’m a father, brother, son, friend, nephew, cousin, boy and more importantly a Lomographer. Notice how I only put a capital letter in Lomographer. It has something to do with the fact that I take photos - of anything - with many different cameras, that I love film, I need film and that I believe that Lomography puts the A into analogue. If you notice things that most people take for granted, or you’re into unexpected accidents and the beauty of a simple moment, then Lomography is for you. Lomography is an attitude, a style, a photographic movement, a bunch of cool friends and whatever else you want it to be. It's inclusive, simple, colourful and best off all: it's a dynamic community.

The Lomography Congress’ location London is a city that has become the opposite of my description of Lomography. London is exclusive, complicated, grey and more to the left of the centre of Europe, in fact most people from London wouldn't consider themselves European... but that's another story. When I was asked to think about a project for the congress, I had to think about what I liked about London. After seconds of thought, I realized what it was. I like walls, especially brick walls. Walls are great: they keep the roof up above our heads, they keep signs up that tell us what to do, if you're lazy or talking to a pretty girl you can lean against it, if you're testing a new car you can crash into it, if you're an artist you can write onto it, when you are naughty and walking home drunk you can take a piss against it, and if you're a builder you can build one.

London has many walls, especially brick ones. Brick walls are great: they make a cool free background to take pictures against. If you're shooting a band, you can do the classic 'against a wall' shot. If you're doing a fashion shoot, put the girl against the wall and tell her to look sexy - the wall will do the rest.

Do you need any more convincing? Go and shoot some walls and if you have anything to stick against it, like a hand, face or foot, then stick it!

Adam Scott is a London-based Photographer and has been collaborating with Lomography on book publishing projects over the past years. The passionate Lomographer’s exploration of the diversity of the city will indisputably be a genuine lomographic challenge.

www.adamscottphotography.com
www.lomohomes.com/adamscott

CMS Students

Urban symbols

Sidney Rogers and his companions from the photography class at Central St. Martins College in London, are passionate about all forms of image capturing with no fear or concept of rules, approaching each project with the same St. Martins ethos “Everything is what you make of it,” “Do what YOU want,” and “Creativity is not a process, it is an idea.”

They have a fable for street art and spray-paintings as a form of free advertising and open communication and want to focus on exploring the city’s street art, fly posters and graffiti. Their utterly Lomographic city tour will be gleaning the devilish visual power of East London. This area of colourful and diverse urban life is full of subverted signs, spontaneous drawings, powerful symbols and curious characters.

Starting on the South bank, they will immerse their group in the skateboarding area filled with graffiti art. They will make their way east towards Brick Lane in Whitechapel, a Bangladeshy community filled with bars, pubs and loads of street art, fluent in branding and graphic imagery.

Sidney Rogers, Cameron Temple, Lee Trott and Julian Salaun are all four energetic photographers, sub-merged from London’s diverse and visually aware community, soon to start their 3rd and final year studying graphic design and photography at Central St. Martins College in London.

Nik Nintey

Graffiti Halls of Fame

I had been living in the Matrix as an artist for some time when I was contacted by Adam Scott, a photographer that needed help on a project he had started. At this occasion he told me about a place called Lomography, where people were still fighting the digital take-over. I was impressed and soon thereafter we travelled to this magical place and I found it all to be true: these great people celebrate the possibilities of the analogue approach long forgotten by many, recording their beautiful moments on film with these funny plastic camera devices.

After meeting the founders of this analogue movement in Vienna, I also called myself to be part of the mission to spread the word so others may see an alternative and remember the days before digital control. The Holga and Fisheye books were the first results from this collaboration to be released to the world.

The Lomo membership is vast and gives hope that there are still some creative open minds out there that have not been completely consumed by the convenience bug. Their work is amazing and is all a part of the mission to enjoy life and share with others.

Back home in London, I revisit places that give me inspiration. Places where graffiti artists meet or risk their lives to leave their work for others to see for free. Urban places that seem to have been forgotten for now and left to slowly decay admits the gleaming, ever-changing and at the same time never-changing, city. My favorite places are the parks – pieces of the countryside that magically wisk you away from the hustle and bustle, spaces to reflect and reaffirm that life is a blessing.

Nik Ninety , alias Ninety, was inspired by his love for music and early days as a graffiti artist before he went on to study art and graphic design in London. Besides his works in painting, illustration and writing, he is an art director and designer for magazines, art books and various record industry related products. Ninety has been collaborating on many Lomography publication projects since 2005. His city challenge will lead you through places that touch his heart and spots that inspire him.

www.gcorp.co.uk

Carolyn Thompson

From Camden Market … with love

What is it about the British that drives us to share our obsession with anyone polite enough to listen? The weather, The Beatles, the great English breakfast, and of course, tea – clichés need to be revealed to the roots of your passion.

I suspect it was my unrelenting efforts to persuade my fellow web-team colleagues in Vienna of the mystical, problem-solving powers of a good cup of tea that led them to the conclusion that, as a Londoner, I must have a passion for one of London’s many corners.

Camden Market holds a special place in my heart; not only for lazy Sunday afternoon wanderings, nursing hangovers and sharing half-remembered stories from the night before with bleary-eyed friends. For me, the hustle and bustle of Camden Market pretty much sums up what I love about London - the cultures, the colours and the characters. The place is bursting with ammunition for the senses; miniature shops nestled under the arches, stalls crammed with little curiosities, steaming food kiosks wafting temptations from all corners of the earth. As it is actually 4 small markets dotted around, one visit gives you the full Camden Town experience - complete with the aging Punks, the Rockers and even a handful of Rastas (if you’re lucky!).

Carolyn Thompson, originally from London, set out for adventures in warmer, drier climates, but found herself in Vienna, where she stayed and worked at the Lomography Headquarters. The only lady in the web department writes newsletters, interviews and blog entries and gives a voice to the cameras' personalities. She says, ‘I would say that Lomo found me. It's the classic story; girl and Lomo catch each other's lenses across a bar. Lomo says "Fancy being part of my world?" Girl falls for Lomo's analogue charms.’ 

www.lomohomes.com/ca-ro

Karen Hall

Morning Feast

‘It was market morning. The ground was covered nearly ankle deep with filth and mire; and a thick steam perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney tops, hung heavily above ... Countrymen, butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vagabonds of every low grade, were mingled together in a dense mass: the whistling of drovers, the barking of dogs, the bellowing and plunging of beasts, the bleating of sheep, and the grunting and squealing of pigs; the cries of hawkers, the shouts, oaths, and quarrelling on all sides, the ringing of bells, and the roar of voices that issued from every public house; the crowding, pushing, driving, beating, whooping and yelling; the hideous and discordant din that resounded from every corner of the market; and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid, and dirty figures constantly running to and fro, and bursting in and out of the throng, rendered it a stunning and bewildering scene which quite confused the senses.’

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1838

Meat has been bought and sold at Smithfield for over 800 years, making it one of the oldest markets and the lifeblood of the City of London. Sink a Bloody Mary with Karen in the wee small hours, follow her to this ancient meat market and shoot red.

This is a call out to all the sleepless and early-risers out there with guts of steel. Seeing the market in action means getting up very early - it’s all over by 7.00 AM! So let’s call it a late night rather than early morning. Beer for breakfast, meat to treat the eye.

Karen Hall is one of the directors of KuriousPRand, together with Linda Scott, Lomography Ambassador London. An expert of British fashion, she has been active in designing, buying and trend forecasting, brand consultancy and event organization.

www.kuriouspr.com

Linda Scott

Calming Waters

Canals are the most mesmerizing parts of any city. Many of this year’s congress activities will take place near the opulent Thames River with its greatest landmarks of the city. And the challenges during the week are not going to be little. So, Linda Scott chose a journey for the congressionals that is to be both a voyage through the more unknown water sides of London and a tranquil jaunt.

Along the Regents Canal, our boat will amble up the water from the romantic Little Venice in West London to the contrasting mash-up-zone that is Camden Central, full of energy and action. The journey along the canal will be spiced up with a challenge to be included in the LomoWorldWall.

Linda Scott graduated in design, print and fashion at Central St. Martins College. Together with Karen Hall she runs a creative communication agency in London as well as the Lomographic Embassy London. She is a resident of crazy Brixton which she considers as the most lovely and wild area in London.

www.kuriouspr.com

LOMOTALKS

As any real congress programme does, the Lomography World Congress London 2007 introduces a number of serious lectures, speeches, and discussion forums on and off the topic of Lomography in the past and present realms. These talks feature some of the finest speakers on groundbreaking topics and will initiate an open debate. And: we have the overmodest aim to develop a manifesto for the next decade of Lomography, based on the results of these congress forums! The manifesto shall hopefully be published before the end of the year along with a documentation of the Lomography World Congress London 2007 (and get right to the proposal of our big goal in time for the LomoWorldWall exhibition in 2017: a 2 kilometre long LomoWall with 1 Million Lomographic Snapshots!!)

Martin Reinhart

Lomography and its Relation to Eternity and Weightlessness

On August 20, 1977, the NASA space probe Voyager 2 was launched to space from the Kennedy Space Centre. Like her sister craft, the Voyager 1, she left behind our Sun system some years ago and is now jetting through the darkness of the firmament at a speed of roughly 6.000 km/h. Each of the probes is equipped with a gold-platted, round copperplate on its exterior shell. On one side of the plate, illustrations have been engraved that are to teach its extra-terrestrial finder details about the plate’s origin and use. On the other side, sounds and images have been recorded that can be played-back with the help of an accompanying steel needle.

The pronounced goal of this multi-medial message was to communicate an image of mankind and life on Earth. The choice of greetings, noises, musical pieces and of the 115 pictures included on the plates were gathered by a team surrounding the astronomer Carl Sagan. One of these images displays three people ingesting food. A woman is delightfully licking on an ice cream, a somewhat plump man critically bites into an over dimensional chocolate cookie and a second man is pouring water into his open mouth.

Now, there are individuals who find this picture inapt of conveying a significant message about mankind. Just recently an article with the title “Embarrassing Ourselves in the Front of the Rest of the Galaxy” was published in the Internet concerning this matter. Unlike the author of this article, I have no personal objections against being presented in such a way. I also like eating ice cream and chocolate cookies. I will even dare to take it a step further and take the concurrence of this year’s Lomography World Congress and the 30 year anniversary of the Voyager take-off, to sketch up a few thoughts to the theme of “Lomography and her Relation to Eternity and Weightlessness.”

Is this described photo condemnable? It seems quite possible that the concerned individuals were enjoying themselves and fooling around during the shooting of the photo. Given the limited storage capability on the plate and the immense costs and effort of the space mission, this behaviour seems rather inappropriate. But are spontaneity, fun and play not wonderful human characteristics? One can just imagine how the Nazi party would have illustrated the theme of the picture “lick, bite, swallow!” It is indeed sufficiently known that Hitler was a passionate chocolate eater; however, it still seems rather unlikely that our extra-terrestrial friends would have died laughing watching National-Socialistic nutritional science.

I do not bring this example up out of nowhere. First off, fifteen years after his work on the Voyager plate, Carl Sagan wrote a screenplay that was turned into a major motion picture in 1997, starring Jodie Foster. In “Contact,” the TV coverage of the Olympics of 1936 is the first sign of life that is detected by aliens; a waving Hitler as the ambassador of Human Kind – the absolute worst case PR scenario for us earthlings! Secondly, the comparison of the absurd “licking” and that, which one would actually imagine as “official” and “scientific,” introduces a big discrepancy - which brings us back to our original theme.

Suppose that today we had 115 images at our disposal in order to depict humanity and life on earth adequately. What would these images look like? As a scientist one would maybe think of some kind of systematic way to split human actions into categories until the most important and common of all behaviours would remain. Then one could add as much meaning and information as humanly possible into every image, and do one’s best to proceed democratically and fair. The question, whether such a staging would still say much about human life, remains open.

One could, however, also spare oneself the tedious thought and selection process and refer to the Lomography World Archive. What is to be found there, portrays, in sheer breath-taking variety, the facts of life strikingly more real and authentic than a scientist ever could. In each and every Lomographic image lies something wonderful – the semiconscious waive of control. No Lomographer sees his camera as a disrupting filter between himself and the world, but as an organ of communication and a vitality accelerator. In the ideal case, reality therefore reintroduces itself without reserves and barriers, allowing the energy and situation of the original moment to be forever captured on film. Paradoxically enough, randomness does not prevail within the mass of Lomography. To the contrary: a whole new dimension of objectivity is gained. Every Lomographic exposure thus contributes to the completion of a worldwide network; a growing categorical image record of life.

By now surely every Lomographer will have figured out how wonderful it would be to expand this mission over the borders of our atmospheric bubble and break into a whole new territory! I therefore explicitly plead for the founding of the Lomo-Space-Project, which holds as its first goal the dispatch of at least 115 greeting Lomographs into the deep space at the first chance that opens up.

Martin Reinhart was born in Vienna. As a graduate of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, an experimental, documentary filmmaker and film historian, he is a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Vienna and Linz, curator at the Technical Museum in Vienna and executive director at WestLicht Photographica Auction. He is the inventor of the film technique tx-transform (2000) and chairs a workshop specialised in camera construction and prototyping in Vienna.

Martin’s speech will focus on the theme of Lomography as time and inter-terrestrial communication, and will be followed by an open discussion.

Edward Booth Clibborn

How to Publish a Good Book

‘All my books must have two main points:

1) A single idea

2) And pace, pitch and pause.’

Copyright, 2007 Edward Booth-Clibborn

Edward Booth Clibborn is a London based publisher of magazines and books on art and photography. Since 1974 Booth-Clibborn Editionshas concentrated its publishing energy towards improving creative standards in commercial media and showcasing its vanguard by specializing in books on graphics and advertising. In recent yearsBooth-Clibborn Editionshas stretched its net and has published books as varied asThe Spendours of The HermitagetoI Want To Spend My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now(by Damien Hirst) and Don’t Think-Just Shoot (Lomography). Edward Booth Clibborn is a founding member of theDesigners & Art Directors Associationof London and fellow of theRoyal Society of Arts, and has lectured on Visual Communications from Sao Paulo to Helsinki.

In his LomoTalk he will be revealing his secrets of book publishing to the congress members. www.booth-clibborn.com

Wendy & Jim

Lomography & Fashion Design

Wendy & Jim will be introducing Lomographers to their world of fashion design. The Viennese designer duo has been representing the creative young Austrian fashion scene, from Paris to Tokyo. Schooled, amongst others, by the famous Mr. Helmut Lang himself, the dynamic duo established their own label in 1997, focusing on radical changes in appearances rather than superficial details. They describe their style as dry and slow and have used unique installations and performances as a medium to visualize their ideas.

This speech is also a chance to get a sneak peak at Wendy & Jim’s collaboration with Lomography next year, which will feature a special edition camera and bag.

www.wujsympathisant.com

Gerald Matt

The Making of a Good Exhibition

In an exclusive lecture for the Lomography congress members, Gerald Matt will be focusing on the seven basic questions about “The Making of a Good Exhibition”: The What, the Why, the When, the Where, the How, the Who and the How much. These basic rules will help any coming artist in the making of the perfect exhibition, may it be on photography or applied arts: this is your key to fame!

Gerald Matt is one of the leading characters of the Viennese culture scene. Since 1996 he is director of the Kunsthalle Wien, the exhibition institution of the City of Vienna for international contemporary art. In the interest of an expanded understanding of art, the Kunsthalle Wien emphasizes cross-genre, cross-border trends in the arts and positions itself as a workshop, a lab, is a forum for contemporary aesthetic and social positions and a hot zone for communicative transfer. Gerald Matt has lead many studies and lectures in the areas of art and cultural management and has published various writings. And: he is one of the first Lomographers of our time. www.kunsthallewien.at

Lora Power

THROUGH THE MEMORY ALBUM

»Every man's memory is his private literature, « said Aldous Huxley. And the best private literatures translated into images are family photo albums. They have their own memory; they carry feelings and speak in a different tongue. Their story of the past tends to be different from images stored in our heads, hearts and who knows where else.

I first learned this in 1979, rummaging through a big box of photos stored in a large (light brown & wooden) cabinet, lining the wall of our (rather small) living room in Novo Mesto/Slovenia (ex Yugoslavia). I stood on a stool many times to grab that box. I still do it – in my head - whenever I want to go back to remember, or every time the past triggers itself into the present.

There were tons of (mostly black and white) images pouring out of that box. They were photographs of my family – my mother and father still in love (if they ever were), various family members (some whom I have never seen), vacations (which I did not and I still don't remember), happy faces (which did not match the real, sad ones), lost cats and dogs and even a sheep. And the angelic blonde boy who loved me to death; my first love, my first friend.

My family photo box was a strange mix of emotions, as were all our albums (seven of them all together, if my memory serves me right). My brother and I each had our own album – he had a light blue one, I got stuck with pink. To me, most of the photos in them appeared a lie, an intrusion even. Among them were ghosts; painful reminders of everything lost. And to write the truth: here and there one could also find a beautiful surprise.

That such small pieces of paper carried such powers upset me - every time I flipped through our memory album I ended up in tears. I did not want to end up being a ghost, a lie, a painful reminder of everything lost; I wanted to be a beautiful surprise.

I don't know why, but I turned my back to photo cameras. I hated being photographed. I froze or shielded myself with both hands. That's why my private photo box only contains a few photos from when I was a little child, one with my ex-husband and a few in between. It's like Fred Madison from Lost Highway said: »I like to remember things my own way... How I remember them, not necessarily the way they happened«.

It would have been perfectly fine to pursue my photo-phobia if I had not re-started life with a guy who turned out to be a photographer. I couldn't believe my luck! I would jump and scream or hide and moan every time he aimed his lens at me. The situation was desperate, no solution at hand… until a trip to Vienna in spring 2001. He took his little black Russian with him, the thing he called Lomo.

Lomo seemed like a lot of fun; my photographer was shooting and pointing at whatever he saw. By-passers were curious about this strange dance, stopping to chat and get acquainted… And as for me: he and he (Lomo) were making me laugh. I fell in love, instantly.

Film by film I got rid of my photo-phobia. One summer I even stripped for my Lomo on a sailing trip along the coast of Dalmatia. Since then, many photo boxes (and tons of photo folders) have appeared all around our home, many beautiful Lomo albums, many happy memories. I no longer like to remember things my way; I prefer to remember them the Lomo way.

As Gregory Batchen argues in Forget Me Not: Photography & Remembrance: »…these photographs have therefore come to represent not their subjects, but rather the specter of an impossible desire: the desire to remember and to be remembered«.

But what is memory? And how is it created? Do early memories affect us and stay in our subconscious forever? Are they ever erased or recycled? Memory is an essential part of much reasoning; it is (in curious) ways connected to dreaming, shaped by language and imagery. It is our organism’s ability to store, retain and recall information. Something some of us want to perfect, while others strive to forget. Why is memory so hard to understand, lamented Bertrand Russell. Many scientists, philosophers, writers, and artists of all walks posed this question. And many have asked – how is photography entwined with memory. Do photographs replace it or enhance it? “We do not remember days; we remember moments” wrote Cesare Pavese in The Burning Brand. Then perhaps my autobiographical memory can be traced on my (and Miha’s) LomoWall.

Lora will be giving a speech on photography and memory with philosophical, scientific, artistic as well as popular culture insights.

Lora and Miha’s collaborated art work is on display at the LomoWorldWall. They like to take photo trips - equipped with two LC-As, a Holga, a Fish Eye, a Super Sampler, a ColorSplash, a Oktomat and a Horizon camera. This is where they find their mutual ground, and this is how their language of intimacy is created, the mirror they like to show to each other. During the LWC you can observe their family album, colourful meetings, whispers and shouts on 8 Lomographic panels. True das Fras [German for: grub]! With a bit of Power.

LORA POWER is a journalist from Ljubljana. She is a weekly contributor to the renowned newspaper Objektiv. She also writes and edits culinary pages for the Slovenian Playboy and articles about society, art, culture and sports for several other publications. Lora also has years of experiences in marketing, advertising and PR, as well as TV production. And why does she love Lomo? »It shows things you normally don't see. And you do that without even looking (or at least not focusing on it). Pure poetry! «

www.lomohomes.com/mondotopless

MIHA FRAS is based in Ljubljana has been working as a professional photographer for almost 20 years. He is a regular staff member at Mladina magazine, one of the leading political weeklies in Slovenia, as well as an official photographer for the mayor of Ljubljana. When it comes to showing his artistic side, he does it best on theatre and dance stages, in concert halls, and all sorts of alternative venues. Among his collaborators one can find director Dragan Živadinov, Kapelica Gallery, MGL Theater, and most of Slovenian dance troops. Fras has recently been featured in a documentary film about Slovene photojournalists titled At First Sight. He is a dedicated Lomographer for one reason – he does not need to think. Nor worry what will come out. »Very relaxing, « he says. »And when you develop a Lomo film you can always count that there will be something good on it!«

www.lomohomes.com/lomoborg

Severin Matusek, Dejan Petrovic

Lomography/Public art as a creative tool for social change

An introduction and open discussion on how Lomography can be used as a medium to connect people.

Any Lomographer can tell the story: you take your camera, go out on the streets and start taking pictures of everything you want to capture in the most impossible of possible ways. Most of the time the most interesting of your results show people: your friend laughing, kids crying, girls eating, someone mumbling, shouting, jumping, brushing his teeth. Human expression and action somehow evoke the strongest impressions and feelings when eternalized as a precious Lomographic moment. But not only the result (the pictures) of your Lomographic turmoil might cause a big smile, let you shed a tear or break out in laughter, but also the Lomographic action of taking pictures itself is an intense and immediate way of connecting to and with people.

Given this fact, we see Lomography not only as means of individual expression but also as a medium of connecting people. Whether they are strangers, friends, groups or people from all over the world; the use of Lomographic cameras and images can help to overcome barriers and to relate to each other by taking, exchanging and communicating through and with images. A number of social and/or charity projects were initiated in recent years that used Lomography as a medium to connect people in various ways.

In an open discussion forum, we want to present to you a short outline of the social projects that Lomography has so far initiated or cooperated in, and the different ways that Lomography was used in these projects, then discuss questions and ideas. In particular two recent projects will be presented:

LomoKikuyu

LomoKikuyu has been by far the biggest charity project of the Lomographic Society so far. By publishing a book about the Kikuyu Eye Clinic in Nairobi, Kenya, and giving it away in exchange for a contribution in order to raise money for eye-operations at the clinic, more than 700 operations were financed until this very day. In addition to that, a big online competition was held in which people sent their Lomographs according to certain themes connected to eyesight. We will present the results of the project. www.lomography.com/kikuyu

Culture On Tour

Initiated by the Lighthouse Centre for Culture and Education, Culture-on-Tour took place in Novi Sad, Serbia. Kids of different minorities in Serbia, including Roma and non-Roma groups, communicated and related between each other in various workshops and challenges through the use of Lomographic tools. The results of the intense five-week endeavour are truly stunning and will also be presented as part of the LomoWorldWall on Trafalgar Square. Lighthouse Centre's Director, Dejan Petrovic, will present and talk about the project.

“Artistic expression can challenge many of society’s deepest seated assumptions and be a powerful tool to create awareness, inspire reflection and promote action – both for those who participate in the creative process and for the audience. Culture_on_Tour’s goal was to start a social change by using Lomography as a creative tool and a catalyst.

Art comes naturally to kids who live under very difficult conditions. They are very expressive, and their everyday work is as expressive as those of great artists. The way we have decided to use Lomography in the Culture on Tour project can be categorized under the term public art. Public art properly refers to works of art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. This was important for reaching the public to whom we wanted to show the horrible conditions these young Roma children live in. Unless a critical mass of people is reached, a project will not achieve its goals. The LomoWall was the perfect method to attain this objective.” Dejan Petrovic

www.lighthousecentre.org
www.lomohomes.com/culture_on_tour

Severin Matusek was born in Vienna and studies Philosophy at the University of Vienna.

He is a master of Lomography and the Word, and works at the Lomography Headquarters in Vienna on conceptual coordination and text editing for Lomography publishing projects.

Dejan Petrovic was born in Novi Sad and lives in Vienna. He is managing director of the non-profit organisation Lighthouse Centre for Culture and Education.

Justin Quinnell

New Light Through An Old Hole

Pinhole Photography - 500 million years of fun

The pinhole format is extremely close to Lomographers beating hearts. It is a throwback to the golden years of early photography and a simplification of imaging technique to its barest bones. Forget focusing, apertures, or even a lens – a pinhole camera is merely a box, film, a hole, and a simple shutter. But the images it creates are nothing short of soft-focus, super-wide angle, and utterly gorgeous dreams come true.

Presenting the science, history and contemporary approaches to pinhole photography, Justin Quinnell’s lecture will focus on his own experimental work. The talk will also include the taking of the world’s first 'power drill portrait'.

“Among the cameras I designed was one made from a 110-film cartridge. After several experiments, I was wondering what use it could be when I realised it fitted in my mouth! After collecting dozens of ‘experiments’ (and years of funny looks from people in the pub), ‘Mouthpiece’ was regurgitated. What next? As ever, I have more ideas than time, but look forward to the day when we can sit in a blacked out room, peel off a shutter covering a small hole and look in wonder at the image forming properties of a small hole. Let us hope the magic will continue for thousands of years, as long as light travels in a straight line and people have the time to teach wonder.”

Justin Quinnell lives in Bristol, where he teaches technology at various schools and colleges. He has been drilling holes in anything that moves for over 17 years and is a well known pinhole photographer lecturing extensively at different universities all over the world. Last year his book ‘Mouthpiece’ was published featuring 60 images taken with the Lomography SmileyCam camera from inside his mouth.

EVENTS

Lomography events need no explanation. A great squad like the world’s pick of the bunch Lomographers (the heartbeat of any Lomography project), a Lomography expert team in planning good stuff, a line-up of superb live performances, the enchanting city of London  – that’s all it takes to ensure the adventure of congress gatherings, dinners, parties and club crawls defined, powered and inspired by the congressionals from all parts of the globe, who are going to turn London upside down for a whole week.

The 7th Lomography World Congress kicks off with a big inauguration ceremony in the centre of Trafalgar Square officially presenting the LomoWorldWall to the world. Ben Evans, director of the London Design Festival, Julie Lomax, Head of Visual Arts at the Arts Council and the Lomography founders from Vienna will be welcoming the hundreds of congressionals from all over the world. Gerald Matt, director of the Kunsthalle Wien, will be opening the week with a speech on “Lomography and the Analogue Counterrevolution” and presenting the 95 theses on the future of analogue photography in general, and of Lomography in specific, read by 95 Lomographers.

Throughout the congress week there will be several opportunities to get up close and personal with the rest of the Lomographic community. Be it during the daily breakfast rituals at the LomoHotel, the traditional tea breaks or the late-night hotel room fun. The toughest of the tough Lomographers will go wild at the nightly club crawling through the hippest clubs in town, group dancing included.

After five days of backbreaking challenging, workshoping and lecturing, our Lomographers are rewarded with two spine-tingling, slippery-wet closing parties. For all those tough Lomographers that can’t get enough, Friday night the party sets off at the 1950’s American style Bloombury Bowling Lanes. Getting lost in a world of a different time, getting cosy in the dark on the scruffy Bordeaux-red plush stools, dancing wild on the black-white tile floor, throwing a strike on the obligatory bowling lanes or getting private in the karaoke booths while Ihu Anyanwu, aka G. Rizo, first-hour Lomographer from New York, now internationally known for her funk/house sound, will teach the crowd how to party with style with a superb live performance.

On Saturday the whole crowd of Lomographers who contributed to the LomoWorldWall will rally up at Trafalgar Square again for the ceremony that will reveal the final LomoLondonWall. The expected 20.000 photos that will be added to the labyrinth throughout the week will be furiously celebrated, critically inspected and finally released to grow on in other parts of the world.

From there, the swarm of Lomographers will head right over to the last congress event on the LomoBoat, the great final party at the HMS President ship. The HMS President is a London’s man Luxury Cruiser, a maze that swipes you off your humble bottoms. This lavish party venue can only be topped by a crowd of the world’s top pick of Lomographers and the hippest performances your Lomo craving can wish for: DJ h.c. Handsome Hank and DJ Peter fröm Austria (known for their performances in LomoEvents throughout the past years) will be rocking the turn tables and guaranteeing for supreme shots with a bouquet of girly music with balls and soul. Organically grown, hand selected and ear-pleasingly arranged from the Fifties to the Philippines and handed out by the moustached twin music-florists & LomoEmployees. Leaving their followers in Lisbon, Venice, Paris, and Vienna - they will plough Britain‘s dance floors for the first time!

As a special visual treat, the party will be spiced with a special live performance, ‘Visuals by Lomography’, thriving off the images of the LomoWorldWall.

The week of hard work and heavy partying ends with an unwinding picnic in Hyde Park where the last farewells are made, giving way to unraveling romances and drama. Last impressions of the week past are shared before the crowd parts over the world again.

IHU ANYANWU

It was September 1999 in New York City. I was looking for a job and my friend recommended an interview with her friend who was working for a company that sold old Russian cameras. She said something about them being unusual, I couldn‘t really understand what she meant no matter how well she tried to explain.

So off I went to the interview, I finally saw these cameras and heard more about the fascinating Lomography story. I got the job and I started working almost immediately. Of course I was not among the Lomo jetset, I was just an office hack most of the time… However, from Lomo I got a few rather important firsts: It was my first real serious office job; It was my first time working on productions, installations and exhibitions; It was my first exposure to the Austrian electronic music scene.

I think what really appealed to me was the idealism and optimism of the Lomographic concept. The mottos „Don‘t Think, Just Shoot!“ and „Shoot from the Hip“ rather delightful ways to celebrate the accidents and errors. It is all very humorous seeming but also has a rather cool and important message. The concept of Lomography as being less about technique and more about expression is a liberating idea. It’s something that talks to all the arts no matter what medium.

A few weeks after I started there was the Lomography World Congress 1999 in Dumbo.

A team of Lomo Vienna people arrived in our office expressly to make it all happen. One thing that I noticed was the music that was playing in the office - it sounded very good. One CD in particular; it had a photo of an older gentleman on it so I just assumed it was jazz. Once I popped it in I realized that this was something special, something in fact I had never heard in electronic music before. I was hearing „Consequences,“ Louie Austen‘s first CD, produced by Mario Neugebauer on Cheap Records. This is a classic record and it really changed my ideas about electronic music.

Pretty soon I started listening to all the CDs that were lying around the office. More great and different music was to come. The unique qualities of Vienna style: clever, melodic, humorous, high quality - this could especially be heard on the sound track of one of the Lomo Home Videos playing as a part of the exhibition. This 16mm film showed quirky scenes from Vienna and Japan: old ladies, dogs, children, street life, and the soundtrack (I believe by Cheap Records) was fabulous - from Latino Gangster Chill out to Yodelling to Sumo Break beat - the premise that these mixes could ever exist, was a statement in itself.

Among the characters that came to New York to DJ at the Lomography World Congress that year was: Patrick Pulsinger and Erdem Tunakan of Cheap Records, Hannes Baumann (Icke Micke), and Tschamba Fii (Florian Howarth), playing along with locals Organic Grooves. There was a lot of really great music floating around during the 2-week period of the event. Anyway, I was impressed enough to want to go and visit Vienna and see/hear for myself what was going on.

I made my first trip to Vienna that Christmas and bought my first DJ vinyl’s (handpicked by Baumann himself) at Chris Rhythm‘s 33/45 record shop. I think that was a pretty important thing because of the 7-8 records I bought, I am sure they began the nexus of a certain direction in my taste in music.

During that trip, I also spent my millennium celebration at the WUK listening to Kruder and Dorfmeister, a Viennese institution if ever there was. I partied at the Meierei and the Flex. So within a 4 month period, I got a crash course in Viennese electronic music.

Over the next 6 years, and even after I stopped working for Lomography, I kept visiting Vienna and each time wanting to be able to stay a little longer.

Through my former zine project REPELLENT, I was able to meet several Viennese music people including Electric Indigo, Tibcurl, i-Wolf, Philipp Quehenberger and many others.

I remember playing all my special Viennese music at New York City parties and feeling proud to have something different, special and good. Christopher Just‘s „House“ 12“ releases, Gerhard Potuznik (my major electro inspiration), even in the experimental sound of Mego or with the pop tendency of Klein Records, and G.Stone (when they released first Stereotyp, I really freaked) - there was always something of interest. Oh, „Those were the glory days!“

Funny, that apparently I missed Vienna‘s most important hype music moment which is said to have been from the mid to late the 90‘s, beginning around the time when The Wire wrote a feature on the Vienna music scene. Oh well...it seems I was born too late, but in this case I didn‘t even notice ;-)

Ihu Anyanwu, a.k.a G.rizo, formally an employee at the Lomography New York headquarters, is now known in the international music scene. Her mix of funk and house introduce to a whole new era of music. As a special act, Ihu will be performing on the big party on Friday night.

www.myspace.com/gdotrizo

MEETING POINTS

Meeting Point 1 (MP1): Trafalgar Square – Lomo Hub

London WC2
Underground Station: Charing Cross
Railway Station: Charing Cross

Meeting Point 2 (MP2): Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes – Lomo Club

Bedford Way, London WC1H 9EU
Basement of: Tavistock Hotel (around the corner of Royal National Hotel)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7 183 1979
Tube station: Russell Square
Railway station: Euston
www.bloomsburybowling.com

Meeting Point 3 (MP3): HMS President – Lomo Ship

Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0HJ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7 583 1918
Tube stations: Blackfriars, Temple (District or Circle lines)
Mainline stations: Blackfriars, Mainline, Thameslink
www.hmspresident.com

Meeting Point 4 (MP4): Royal National – Lomo Hotel

38-51 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0DG
Tel: +44 (0)20 7637 2488
Tube Station: Russell Square
Bus Station: Euston

Meeting Point 5 (MP5): Austrian Cultural Forum London

28 Rutland Gate, London SW7 1PQ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7225 7300
Tube Station: Knightsbridge Underground
Busses: C1, 74, 14
www.austria.org.uk/culture

Meeting Point 6 (MP6): Design Museum London

28 Shad Thames
South Bank, London, SE1 2YD
www.designmuseum.org