A type of photography invented by the Lomographic Association, a company founded in the early 90s in Austria to market the Lomo LC-A, a cheap
Russian camera which the founders had discovered took strange, high-contrast photos that often featured vignetting (the focus goes
soft and the image darkens around the edges).
Today Lomography is mainly used to describe the "
art" of taking photos with a Lomographic camera, or any camera sold by the Lomographic Association (popular examples include the Fisheye, Lomo LC-A, and Holga). The term is also sometimes used to describe photography using any cheap or quirky cameras.
The Lomographic
Society has come under very severe criticism for several points, the main
one being that the company seems to sell cameras and photographic equipment for far, far more than it's worth. Notable examples include the Lomo LC-A itself, which was around $30 USD when the original Lomographers first purchased it, yet sells for around $250, or the new Diana+, an updated version of a camera that originally sold for $1 that is currently sold by Lomography for $50. The Lomographic
Society also seems to emphasize wild experimentation with (expensive) film, which some point out might be a ploy to get consumers to purchase more film from the Lomographic
Society themselves.
Recently (as in early
2007-
ish), the Urban Outfitters chain of stores have begun to stock Lomographic cameras, giving the brand a much larger audience to cavort around green pastures snapping photos
willy-nilly and calling it
art.
(As much as I
hate the Lomographic
Society for their sales practices, I must admit that I do regularly use my Lomo LC-A, as well as my Holga and my Diana+. I also buy film from them very often. Hey, it's a mean business practice, but Lomography is fun as shit.)
Person 1: Hey, I just got a Holga from Urban Outfitters.
Person 2: Cool, dude! You just had $10 burning a hole in your pocket, did you?
Person 1: What the
fuck? That thing cost me $75!
Person 2: What a
rip. Also, know that the film for those things is $5 a roll, not including development, which you'
ll have to get done at a specialty camera store because drug stores don't develop that kind of film.
Person 1:
FUCK.
Person 2: That's Lomography for you.
