Feature

Lomography
Once the industrious brain child of Communist Russia, the candid approach of Lomography is now having repercussive effects upon the Capitalist world. Thomas A. Ward delves deep into its thirty-year history and modern day privacy issues

For the pleasure and glory of the Soviet citizens
In 1982, General Igor Petrowitsch Kornitzky, right-hand man to the USSR Minister of Defence and Industry, smashed a little Japanese mini-camera onto the regal desk of his comrade Michail Panfilowitsch Panfiloff. Director of the powerful LOMO Russian Arms and Optical factory, Panfiloff examined the camera carefully, taking note of its sharp glass lens, high light sensitivity and robust casing. The two, realising the superior nature and extreme potential of this sedulous creation, gave immediate orders to copy and improve its design. The ultimate goal: to produce the largest quantity possible for the pleasure and glory of the Soviet people.

It was decided with great authority that every respectable Communist should have a LOMO Kompakt Automat of their own, and the Lomo LC-A was born. Millions of these inexpensive cameras were promptly produced and sold, as comrades snapped happily away throughout their day through the Eighties, fully documenting the last gasps of Communism.

Since its clandestine creation, many rumours have evolved with regards to its use. Users were encouraged to take a light-hearted approach to their photography, and to document everyday life. The LOMO LC-A’s small size, simple controls, and ability to shoot in low light encourages candid photography, photo reportage, and realism. This, in effect, resulted in the first form of Big Brother surveillance for a Communist regime, as the inexpensive snapshot camera enabled them to gather intelligence on their unsuspecting citizens.

The Iron Curtain closes on Lomography
The popularity of the LC-A waned after the curtain call of Communism and the introduction of dirt cheap, battery-powered imports from Asia. The LC-A was now only available in quirky, old-school camera shops.

In 1992, a group of restless Viennese students travelling through the Prague stumbled across such a shop and bought a couple of the cameras for fun. They began to take candid photos of the resplendent capital as the Czech Republic celebrated its new-found freedom from Soviet control. The LC-A had unknowingly been rediscovered.

When they developed the photos of their tour – amusing, sad, garish shots, some in focus and some blurred – they noticed something special about them. The pictures had an exciting and fresh quality to them, capturing the life of not only their subject, but also of the photographer.

The Lomographic Society and beyond
In the snap of a shutter, Lomography engrossed all of those coming into contact with their photographs, and in 1992, The Lomographic Society (Lomographische Gesellschaft) was founded in Vienna, with the aim of spreading the message of Lomography throughout the globe.

As the demand for LOMO Kompakt’s grew throughout the world, the society was faced with a dilemma as the Russian production plant announced it was stopping its manufacture. Eventually the Society members were successful in convincing the LOMO factory heads and Mr. Vladimir Putin (vice-mayor of the LOMO Optics factory of St. Petersburg at the time) to begin production of the LC-A once again.

Despite being in production, LC-As are still in short supply. Originals fetch in excess of £100 on eBay due to their niche and historical value amongst photographers and enthusiasts who wish to take part in its honest artistry, adhering to its ‘Ten Golden Rules’.

The Ten Golden Rules
At the very core of Lomography lie the Ten Golden Rules to guide and disarm users of all photographic formalities and complications. The very essence of Lomography’s “Don’t Think, Just Shoot” motto.

1. Take your camera everywhere you go;
2. Use it any time - day or night;
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it;
4. Try the shot from the hip;
5. Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible;
6. Don’t think;
7. Be fast;
8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film;
9. Afterwards either;
10. Don’t worry about any rules.
Sub head/sell: The light-hearted approach to Lomography and its sordid Communist past is something that we cannot escape from in contemporary society with CCTV and Facebook leading the way in profile data basing. Should we be worried?

Lomography’s vision in our modern day society
The candid style of photography that Lomography promotes can be seen (or not as the case may be) all around us. The UK is the world leader in video and digital surveillance. Our every move is being monitored by over 4.5 million CCTV cameras that hang menacingly above our heads, making us one of the most watched nations in the world, next to the likes of Communist China. This works out at one CCTV camera for 14 people living in the UK.

Although CCTV can be a valuable tool in crime detection and prevention, it is often unproven as a cure and infringes on our personal privacy and liberty as a result. The Home Office has spent a huge amount of its crime budget on CCTV over the last ten years, yet crime rates are comparable with countries with very few cameras.

CCTV can be effective in bringing prosecutions in criminal courts but even then, some police forces admit that they will not use CCTV footage because of the time and costs involved. It is also dangerously unregulated, and without independent regulation, there is potential for CCTV to be misused and abused and potential for unjustified intrusions into our privacy by a government that is constantly chipping away at our civil liberties.

Lomographic narcissism
The photo reportage of Lomography can be seen throughout social networking sites all over the world. The digital age in which we live makes it very simple for us to join and volunteer our most intimate details on the likes of Facebook and share it with the world.

Free to join, Facebook catalogues your entire social network into a computer database: email, home address, personal preferences over the books you read, films you watch and music you listen to, to your political persuasions, club associations, previous jobs, educational background, and who you are dating. This can be quite an honest and intensive list, with some of your nearest and dearest not even knowing some of these rather personal details unless you accept their request for friendship through the site.

Millions of its cohabitants update their profile daily, uploading photos of their nights out and daily movements onto the site with a narcissistic insouciance, seemingly unaware of the risk that it places on their privacy. Let’s call it Big Brother with a consumer-friendly smile.

Founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while studying at Harvard University, Facebook has spread virally since its inception and currently has more than 200 million active users worldwide.

In order to launch Facebook on a global scale, Zuckerberg et al received $500,000 in funding from Peter Thiel. Founder and former CEO of Paypal, Thiel is a self-confessed neocon and globalist whose book, ‘The Diversity Myth’ received praise from the likes of William Kristol and Edward Meese. Thiel also sits on the board of the radical right-wing Vanguard PAC.

More worryingly, Facebook received $13 million in venture capital backing from Accel Partners. James Breyer, manager of Accel, sits on the board of National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) alongside Gilman Louie, head of In-Q-Tel. The CIA set up In-Q-Tel in 1999, with the goal of fostering companies that provide “data warehousing and mining” in a “secure community of interest.” Further goals include “profiling search agents” which are “self-sustaining, to reduce its reliance on CIA funding.” For something that is dressed up as being harmless and fun, Facebook is beginning to look like the sheep in devil’s clothing and a dark foray into psychological profiling.

Facebook and Lomography share many similar features in their insidious and clandestine encroachment upon our lives, movement and liberties. However, Facebook can be seen as acting in the favour of a possible cabal whom want to know our every move and crush internal dissent; Lomography wants to capture it candidly of nostalgia’s sake.