Lomography's Founders Look Back On 25 Years

Sally Bibawy and Matthias Fiegl, cofounders of Lomography, came of age as the world changed. As students in Vienna, Austria in the early 1990s, they were able to see the Soviet grip on neighbors to the east slip away. The Berlin Wall had come down just a few years before, the USSR became the Commonwealth of Independent States—the landscape of Europe experienced its largest shift since World War II.

The pair, along with a group of friends also attention university, stumbled upon an obscure, Russian-made photographic camera at a small store during a visit to Prague. The Lomo LC-A was a tiny, pocket-friendly 35mm photographic camera with zone focusing. Its design, along with the more than economical film processing costs afforded by the automated minilabs that started popping up in supermarkets, changed the mode the group approached photography.

Matthias recalls, "In 1991 in that location was a group of students and people who came from different fields. There was an creative person, a lawyer, someone studying philosophy. We were a group of people who were lucky to find this camera and we loved arts and we loved inventiveness."

The LC-A opened new doors. Matthias continues, "Instead of very well-thought-out shots and composition, it was more like a random shoot-from-the-hip snapshot quantity photography. This was new to united states of america and also everybody who had this camera was shooting all the time in the confined and on the mode to the office or academy."

Procuring More Cameras

As members of the group connected to use the LC-A, others wanted the camera too. But they weren't on sale in Austria, so they did what whatever twentysomething would do—they started sneaking cameras into the state.

Matthias again: "We started to smuggle cameras, first from Slovakia, and then from Budapest and the Czech Republic. And and then we went to Russia and bought—I think the first large lot was 700 cameras from ane dealer. There was just ane shop in Moscow who always had the photographic camera. Information technology had thousands."

A table of cameras and instant prints greets visitors as they enter Lomography's Greenwich Village shop.

"In the stop we succeeded. And we told all the people buying this camera 'you've go a Lomographer, a fellow member of the Lomographic Order. Nosotros'll practise exhibitions together and shoot in the same style."

But the success wasn't sustainable. Later a few months of transporting hundreds of LC-A cameras into Austria, officials took notice. "Nosotros managed to smuggle for a couple of months, but and then the custom guards, they knew u.s., with our large backpacks. And so nosotros decided to contact the factory. We sent them a fax saying 'Hullo, here are our names, we wanted to tell you we founded the Lomographic Social club and we would exist interested in ownership [the LC-A] from you."

They didn't hear back. Only the grouping was gaining traction, and had assembled enough members and images to stage an exhibition of their work. The location? Moscow, of course. It was at this prove that serendipity intervened.

Matthias tells the story best: "We organized a big exhibition in Moscow. The foreign minister was opening the exhibition…Someone went on the phase and took the mic away and said 'Ok now, I have to tell a story.' He was the marketing person from the Lomo manufacturing plant in St. Petersburg. He said 'I have to tell this story because a couple of months ago nosotros got a weird fax from Vienna, and it was sent exactly on the outset of April. And information technology had such a strange message that someone had founded the Lomographic Club that nosotros thought information technology was a first of Apr joke!'"

Lomography Diana medium format cameras on brandish. The visitor's next big release is a version of the Diana that uses square format instant film.

News of the Moscow show had made its way to Petrograd. Emerge chimes in, "We managed to convince them to sell united states a small quantity of cameras, then, to manufacture [the LC-A] exclusively for united states. In 2004—eight or ten years later—they stopped production. It'south quite a circuitous product with 500 parts, it's more similar a Swiss watch than a photographic camera."

Sally continues, "They gave us the [technical] drawings. Information technology took us a year to detect a factory to find someone. I was introduced to an engineer in northern China, and he was okay to fix a factory for the product. They build all of our complicated Russian remakes and lenses to this day."

Taking Over Production

It didn't stop with the LC-A. What began every bit an art movement evolved into a boutique camera maker, designing and bringing more products to market. The LC-A was joined by the Action Sampler in 1998, a point-and-shoot with iv lenses. It captures four images on a single frame of film, each snapped about a quarter-second apart. Consider it the forerunner to Apple'south Live Photos, a mix of withal images and move, but strictly analog.

Many, many more cameras would follow, and as Lomography grew, its product catalog became more than diverse. The company would add film—both colour and black-and-white—to its product catalog. And while there are several small companies producing minor batches of artisanal blackness-and-white stock, Lomography is the just minor player making its own color motion picture today. The other players in the marketplace—Fujifilm and Kodak—are incomparably larger entities.

The LomoKino'southward flickering, low-fidelity movies are starting to catch on—long later the camera made its debut.

Some have been quite successful—Matthias points to the Simple Use Camera, a modernistic disposable 35mm indicate-and-shoot, equally an example. But others have struggled to find a place. The LomoKino was greeted with a absurd reception when it debuted in late 2022. But Lomography didn't give up on the quirky paw-cranked movie camera, which uses standard 35mm moving-picture show cartridges. Today it'due south enjoying a scrap of a renaissance, with renewed interest from filmmakers who take establish it to be a useful tool for terminate-motion animation.

Weathering the Digital Revolution

For the most part, the big camera companies have abandoned making new moving-picture show cameras. Bated from Lomography, Leica is the only existent actor remaining. And while Lomography'southward cameras tend to be priced for the masses, Leicas are priced for the bourgeoisie.

Lomography hasn't stuck effectually because of marketing. Matthias tells us, "We did not market analog. We just did analog and nosotros continue to do analog. And nosotros explain, explicate, explain." Emerge jumps in to elaborate, "Staying stubborn and continuing to communicate what we did from the beginning, and promoting picture. At one point we realized there are people who grew up with [a smartphone] in their easily and had no idea what a film roll is. We had to accommodate our advice, which we did."

The La Sardina is a plastic-lensed, wide-bending 35mm camera.

Matthias has some thoughts on the appeal of imperfect images. "Sometimes, these pictures of children, [the parents] take more and more than trying to grab the most exciting moment. You accept a perfect picture of a 1-year-old. You await at it, it looks perfect, only information technology's a zombie. This incredible super-happy expression of something is not a real child. So it'due south better to accept an un-sharp photo of a kid, which is, I don't know, just sweet or just good. [With movie] you accept a picture and you cannot modify it anymore. That'due south it."

The web has certainly been an outlet for communication. As if to reinforce the paradox, many of Lomography's more contempo products take been introduced and presold via Kickstarter. The first, a 35mm film scanner for employ with your smartphone camera, was offered in early on 2022 and shattered its $50,000 funding goal past more than than $200,000.

Emerge explains, "We learned [about Kickstarter] near two or three months earlier launching the moving-picture show scanner. It was new, and nosotros realized fast that it matched our target audition—early birds, people who involve themselves into the production, people who want to fund something. And it worked out perfectly."

Kickstarter tin can be dangerous, nonetheless, for companies and consumers. There's a level of trust involved, and we've seen a number of products promised and presold, only to plough out to exist vaporware. To this, Sally says, "People trust in us, that we evangelize the product—this is very of import."

And Lomography has delivered. I've personally bought two products via its Kickstarter—the New Petzval lens and the Lomo'Instant Foursquare. Both arrived on or ahead of schedule, as is the case with all of the other products the company has offered via the crowdfunding site. Its near recent effort, the Diana Instant Square, recently closed with nearly three times its funding goal nerveless. Early bird backers should expect to receive it in December.

Lomography's New York City store is located in Greenwich Village, non far from Washington Square Park.

It'southward non all virtual for Lomography, of course. I sat down with Sally and Matthias at the Lomography Gallery Shop in New York's Greenwich Village—one of more a dozen brick-and-mortar locations the company runs across the world. Customers can browse, get easily-on time with a camera before purchasing, and get moving-picture show developed at these locations. The New York location has a coffee shop vibe, minus the espresso, with a practiced deal of art gallery mixed in. At that place are plenty of images on display and an enthusiastic staff to assistance you feed your analog needs.

What Comes Next?

Lomography has a quarter-century of life under its belt. In that time it'due south moved from reselling smuggled LC-A cameras to designing its own originals, operating both physical and online retail portals, and embracing the latest in digital marketing with its Kickstarter campaigns. We'd need some seriously good prognostication to know where the company will exist in 2043, just still I asked the pair what the adjacent 25 years holds.

Matthias paints the portrait with the broadest of strokes: "Nosotros wish to stay in photography. Analog photography." Sally's goals are in line, simply a bit more focused: "I would say the goal is to go on creating content—fantastic content. We have an incredible community and team, working every twenty-four hours to introduce new people to analog photography."

A sign in the New York Lomography store proudly proclaims, "The hereafter is analog."

For the more immediate future, Matthias offers a glean of what'south to come up. "Next year we have 2 projects which will exist totally nice and surprising and again, totally different. I mean, one is a moving-picture show project. We will continue to produce film —you know, the LomoChrome Royal and Turquoise—this nosotros want to expand. The other project will be again, an analog 35mm and 120 camera, and this we cannot speak about, just this volition be very fun, really. Fun, totally unexpected."

He continues, "The well-nigh important thing is that you're not vanishing. A lot of good companies vanished, and this innovation is not coming anymore from them."

Y'all tin walk into a store—or hop on Amazon—and purchase the updated version of the LC-A, the LC-A+, or any number of products from Lomography. Matthias' favorite is among them, the medium format LC-A 120, which looks a lot like the original, just bigger all around to accommodate the larger film size.

Lomography believes in film, to the point there'southward no incertitude about it. There's a sign at the Lomography Gallery Shop in New York that reads, "The Future is Analog." That may not be truthful for anybody, merely information technology is for Lomographers.

(Note: The photos in this story were shot using the Lomography La Sardina loaded with Kodak Tri-Ten.)