The Day of Enthusiastic Belief

In the beginning


It probably never was
the way you looked at me
because I lost myself in fiction
and painted absurd pictures
of you butting the wall
with your Roman cigarette.

Over Saturday lunches
you'd ask me
if I'd hold my fork like that always
I'd say sometimes
often when the world was watching

then I'd say
look how I'm holding my fork now

or

I can't use chopsticks
and because you're last girlfriend
was Chinese
suddenly it mattered.

We are shutters against the sun


I've unravelled the double reef
loosely smoothed
the flat bodied fold
this man is now an empty space
his belly a clenched
black fist

flesh kissable

we dine
his balls a gentle knot
against my body
I underline
the sharp limbed tent
of his pant suit

we are shutters
against the sun.

This is your life - you are the cube.

At a certain stage
and for a long time

you have focus -
a ready fish eye

this includes the finer things.

You can pick a thorn from a rose
and be a rhinocerous.
You are sharp
keen to see
the pixels
in a larger picture.

You can see the desert
she is a sprawl of rippled sand.

You are a cube
spun on one point -
a brilliant white horse

She stands
one leg tucked under.

Sometimes she is a devil
with a tail
and two horns

sometimes she is spinning

The Day of Don't Think Just Shoot

Out of pure enthusiasm for a new found creative outlet I recently conducted a small yes/no survey. The question was:

What is lomography?

9/10 people (some experienced photographers) asked had absolutely NO idea what lomography was, nor what I was talking about.

So what is lomography and what was the point of my survey?

The term lomography represents a type of casual, snap-shot photography that produces over-saturated colours, reveals exposure defects and creates inconsistantly abstract effects. It is dervived from the use of an original 'Lomo LC-A' - a medium format Russian 'toy' camera, characterized by its low-fidelity and inexpensive construction. Lomography provides a raw artistic medium and redefines what others would consider 'bad' photography. The point of my survey was to find out how many people knew about this, and to conclude whether or not I was the last to know.


The following are the 10 company Rules of Lomography:

Take your LOMO everywhere you go.
Use it anytime - day or night.
Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of it.
Shoot from the hip.
Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
Don't think.
Be fast.
You don't have to know beforehand what you've captured on film.
You don't have to know afterwards, either.
Don't worry about the rules.


I purchased my first "lomographic" camera from trademe (a NZ website similar to eBay that specializes in auctioning new and used goods). The Holga 120N with its host of attachable color and prism filters is all you need to be producing out-of-the-box photography similar to the quality and effects of a well-made and accurately pointed pin-hole camera. Essentially the Holga is a 'toy' camera built from a plastic frame and synthetic lens. Many have been modified to house glass lenses and are designed to accommodate battery powered flash boxes. After browsing an inspiring site compiled by a Japanese lomo-photographer I was keen to get started. These photos are my first attempt. While they may not be enough to instill the kind of enthusiasm I feel this medium deserves, they do give an impression of how experimental and unrefined this type of photography can be.

Apparently the fourth rule of lomography is to 'shoot from the hip' - so that's exactly what I did. In my opinion the photos lacked contrast and a lapse in detail. Perhaps I should have followed rule ten!

If you'd like to learn about the origins of this self-proclaimed cultish medium:
http://www.lomography.com

If you're looking for lomo galleries try:
http://lomogallery.de
http://lomoshot.com

For purely pictorial purposes one of my favorite sites is: (you need to be proficient in katakana to decipher it)
http://lomojapan.com

If you're interested in purchasing a Holga I recommend:
http://trademe.co.nz

or perhaps the classic Russian 'lomo':
http://shop.lomography.com/shop/

The Day of Attentiveness

On a recent trip up the North Island I discovered new ways of looking out a moving vehicle. These photos were originally taken on my digital SLR Canon Powershot but after various exposure adjustments within Microsoft Digital Image Pro these photos have taken on a lomographic quality.

For information on lomography visit:
http://www.lomography.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomography