Love is in the Air with Easelle Cho and the Lomo'Instant

Through the Love Project, Korean artist Easelle Cho uses instant photographs to portray the beauty of love through images captured in different locations. The showcase of images features love’s different interpretations in Japan, Paris, and New York . Presenting the work and insight of our latest Lomo’Instant LomoAmigo, Easelle Cho.

Korean artist Easelle Cho held the Love Project exhibit at the NYC Lomography Gallery Store simultaneously with the the Lomo’Instant camera six months ago. She was given the camera to continue her project with, and four months later she brought quite a number of analogue and instant pictures that were later used to create a wall full of instant pictures.

Hi Easelle, please tell us about yourself and the Love Project.

I’m a New York-based photographer born in Seoul, South Korea. In 2006, I began LOVE PROJECT in Japan to capture lovable moments based on communion with the people. In 2007, I took part in group exhibition at Design Festa in Tokyo, Japan. For eight years since, I have consistently worked on LOVE PROJECT. In 2010, I conducted album photo shoots of Pastel Music’s musicians.

From 2012 for three years, I have produced journals, postcards, and other prints portraying daily beauty and scenery. With passion in traditional, hands-on photography, I have been involved in every stage of print production. My art director experience consists of Children Design Coordination Exhibition hosted by Seoul city as well as Hello Kitty Art Exhibition in Korea. Based on these experiences, I coordinated the production of LOVE PROJECT exhibition which took place at The Powerhouse Arena in July, 2014.

Through the exhibition, I aimed to express a message to the audience to remind ourselves of love, and to spread the LOVE movement. “I hope my photos serve as beautiful, invaluable gift to those I’ve met while capturing flashing moments of love.”

You’ve been shooting instant mini photos for a long time. Why do you like this format so much?

I have been shooting photos with an instant mini-polaroid for eight years kind of like piling up Lego bricks one by one: whenever I’m on travel and in daily life. We often can’t provide a distinct reason for why we feel love toward someone.

Similarly, I have always naturally enjoyed the polaroid format. I couldn’t use them too often since the film costs were hefty, but still had managed to amass a sizable collection throughout the eight years and wanted to share them with others. Perhaps I have been holding onto them one by one in hopes of opportunities for exhibiting them. Those numerous and long-term records have been expressed in terms of my life’s motto: love.

How was your experience with the new Lomo’Instant camera?

I was delighted. Having access to a new camera gives me the same feeling as a child would have when receiving a new toy. Ever since viewing the video clips on Kickstarter, I have anticipated the launch of the Lomo’Instant camera as many Lomo users will have, I’m sure.

The Lomo’Instant camera brings many distinct advantages: the three shooting modes, the three lenses(close-up, portrait, fish-eye) that allow diverse shoots, the natural vignetting as a Lomo camera would, and the ability to maintain the feel for a very long time due to its high contrast, even when the film wears out. The lack of reproduction capability, advantages of film cameras, could be regarded as a shortcoming. At the same time, being able to capture a memory on a single film is a valuable bliss in and of itself!

Any tip you want to share for those who want to shoot with the Lomo’Instant camera?

It did take me a while to make the new camera into my go-to guy. I failed with three or four rounds of film and am currently still broadening my knowledge on the Lomo’Instant. Rather than a usage tip, I want to say to other new users to just have fun playing around with the camera. Try using the double exposure feature or using light or fireworks to write letters in the air. Learn about the camera as you have fun!

Do you have your own love story? Please share.

While listening to many different people’s love stories through Love Project, I have contemplated about my own love story to share as the host. There is a novel by the Japanese writer Murakami titled ‘On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning’.

I think my own most valuable love story would be when I had met the ‘100%’ boy. It would be a story of how he instilled emotions into a very naïve and young me, allowing me to use those senses to drive me to pursue photography until today. Just like in Murakami’s novel, I couldn’t hold on to the 100% boy, making my love story a sad one. How beautiful is it that you seek the 100% counterpart while that counterpart also seeks you. I’m currently on my journey of finding my own soul mate that I should hold onto forever.

written by mindofmyra on 2014-12-17 #people #nyc #lomography-gallery-store #gallery-store #analogue-cameras #lomoamigo #35mm-films #120-films