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May 25, 2005
From Russia With Love
Little Lomos are popping up everywhere. Perhaps you've seen them in design stores and museum gift shops around town. Novelty cameras that feature a fisheye lens or various colored flashes or that shoot multiple exposures in a single print.
But if you want to keep it real, get yourself a Lomo Kompakt Automat. It's a tough little number with a history dating back to Soviet Russia.
It seems a group of Austrian students stumbled across the Lomo while on vacation in Prague circa 1991. The gear and film were so cheap that they snapped like crazy, not knowing what they'd get.
Turns out the lens, crafted by Russian opticians who made space telescopes, gave the pictures a distinct look: Super-saturated colors and a dark haze around the edges. In other words, cool and arty.
Lomography has since grown into an international phenomenon with numerous fan sites and photo archives. In fact, without its cultish following the Lomo would be no mo'. When the Russian government tried to cease production in 1996, it was the fans who turned the situation around.
Today Lomo licenses its name for use on the plastic novelty cameras cropping up around L.A., but they're made in China.
The novelty we'd like to see? A camera that shoots Lomo-style pictures...only digital.
Lomo cameras start at $260 and are available at Lomogaphy.com. For a list of Lomo gallery sites go here or here.
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