Community LomoAmigo and Art Enthusiast Kylewis Films with the LomoKino!

This week’s LomoKino LomoAmigo is a wife, a mother of three, an artist, and most of all, a Lomographer. Come and know more about the busy analogue lifestyle of Ky Lewis as she talks about her new found relation with the LomoKino.

Full Name: Ky Lewis
Lomography Username: kylewis
Location: London

Tell us about yourself. What do you do for a living? What are your interests?

I’ve been living in London for over twenty five years now, I came when I went to art college and I never left since there are too much to do here. And how can anyone leave such a mad city? I have a wonderful family, three girls and a husband that put up with having camera stuff all over the house and they have coped fairly well with being the subject of many images.

I left college and became a self employed printmaker/illustrator and designer and meandered my way through that world until I had my first child then I reduced the work that had the serious deadlines so I could be a mum for a bit. Two more girls later (and a bizarre and fun life with them), my image making has wandered more and more into the area of photographic imagery and Lomography. I do workshops and teach art, I like hands on art showing how the process work and conveying that knowledge to others so that they can pursue their own ideas. I’ll use all methods, I have quite a broad knowledge of techniques but alternative photo methods, Lomography and printmaking are my love.

I’m obsessed with photos, images of all kinds, passionate about them, still, moving, alternative and archaic processes, making my own pinholes cameras in fact anything to do with art. Music is also a must, I love going to gigs and for the quieter moments I’ll disappear off to my allotment to tend veg and check on my solargraph cans that are strapped to the posts out there!

How long have you been a Lomographer and how did you find out about the Community?

I’ve been using a camera since I was 13 but I suppose I first became a Lomographer when I got a Supersampler as a present from Germany in 2002! It was the maddest thing I had seen but I fell in love with that pull cord and what that little cam could do. It changed my outlook on life. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I found out about the Community and then made the connection to my little Supersampler,

Describe the LomoKino in five words.

Compact, intriguing, quirky, active, promising

How did you like shooting with the LomoKino?

I love it, it’s so much fun and as usual I am getting a gamut of strange looks and questions, especially when I was shooting at a local ice rink on one of it’s last few days of being open after 80 years. I’m hoping to salvage that film as it somehow got spliced and torn and if I do I think it’ll look really cool, it will be symbolic of the destruction of a beautiful building to try and still use this film with the damage tearing its way through it. The Kino is small enough to be discreet as well and I have managed to stand and film when others didn’t notice. I have a backlog of eight films to animate now so I know what I’m doing for the next week.

What or who has inspired you to purchase and use the LomoKino?

I have loved the moving image for a long time and used a Canon Super8 when at college until it became too expensive to send off the film. I then made small films like stop motions with a pinhole camera and on seeing the clues to the Kino I knew it would be the answer. I have so many film loves that cross many genres but Stan Brakhage; Eisenstein; Tarkovksy; Maya Deren; Derek Jarman; Michel Gondry, Jan Svankmajer and Jean Cocteau would be my key influences but there is so much out there to inspire.

Any funny or strange encounters you’ve had with it?

I had a lot of fun at the Lomography East Anniversary party and took a few rolls in one go, hopefully catching the joyous celebrations of the evening, I’m scanning that one at the moment. I’ve had curious looks and comments but nothing that strange, after carrying crazy plastic cameras around for years nothing is that strange anymore.

If you could shoot any person alive or dead (or imaginary) with your LomoKino, who would it be and why?

I can’t believe how difficult this question is but the only person that seems to stick in my head is to record a painting session with Francis Bacon. He was such a secretive painter. and his studio was a ‘bomb site’ of creativity (I can empathise) I just think it would be fascinating to watch the development, from beginning to end of any one of his pieces.

Kindly share to us any LomoKino movie you love the most.

When the Lomokino films started coming in there were two that I loved, I thought they were well filmed and full of story, atmosphere and left you with a desire for more these were Ghost On The Beach by satomi, Lomokino Sound by weidong and I would also like to mention another one, though leaving it to just these three seems wrong even when you have asked for only one LOL. This one is very moving - My Favourite Holiday Used to be the Fourth of July by David Kupferburg.

Any future plans with your LomoKino? More shoots or a full-length film perhaps?

I have lots of plans, a few straight films and some experiments I have up my sleeve. There is also a much longer piece which will link in with some still pinhole work that I plan to do when the light is right. This is a retelling of a journey that was made a long time ago!

Your advice to future LomoKino users.

On a technical note check you have put your film in correctly and that the film is winding on properly If you have a tripod or a pistol grip use that to make it easier to hold. Keep it fun and creative and make sure your gut feeling is there.

Watch more LomoKino movies by Ky Lewis here!

Enter a new analogue dimension with the LomoKino. Lomography’s own 35mm analogue movie camera allows you to capture action and immortalize your story on film! Shoot 144 frames on any 35mm film and create your own cinematic masterpieces. Want to watch your movie the old-school way? We also offer the LomoKino and LomoKinoscope package!

written by mayeemayee on 2012-02-09 #people #videos #camera #reviews #community #lomoamigo #lomokino #lomokino-lomoamigo