Lomography is the art of taking bad pictures with a Lomo
(or a similar fixed lense camera). Like a photographer, a
lomographer will try to catch a glimpse of reality on film - but
that's about where the similarities end. A typical
lomographic picture is out of focus, blurred, taken from an unusual
point of view and at any angle, and usually half of the subject of
the picture is missing. The Lomo has automatic exposure,
which makes that hard to mess up (the manual actually explains that
exposure time can be variably increased by covering the exposure meter
with a finger).
The basic idea of lomography is to free yourself from the
constraints of "the good picture", and the magic lies
in the coincidental nature of each picture. According to
www.lomo.ch, these are the Ten Golden Rules of Lomography:
- take the Lomo, wherever you go
- use it day and night
- Lomography is part of your life
- get your subject as close to the lense as possible
- don't think
- be fast
- it's not important to know what ends up on the picture before you take it
- even less after you took it
- "shoot" from the hip
- don't think about rules
Lomography started as a business idea to make money
fast exploiting or helping (who knows?) the collapsed economy of
the region formerly known as the USSR. After getting some media
coverage in the early 90's, it became a (short-lived) trend (at least) in
German-speaking Europe, but there seem to be quite a few
lomographers left.
References: www.lomo.de, www.lomo.ch, www.lomo.com (the last
one didn't work for me)