Julija Svetlova Shoots with the Lomo'Instant Wide

Julija Svetlova, also known as “neja” on the Lomography circuit, is a London-based film photographer. She has run workshops for The Photographers Gallery and The University of the Arts and continues to produce beautiful imagery using various film cameras and techniques.

How long have you been a Lomographer?

My Lomo nickname is neja. I have been a member of the Lomography community since 2001.

What were your first impressions of the Lomo’Instant Wide?

My first impression was “Ouch! Looks complicated.” But then I watched a video tutorial and checked the manual and realised that it wasn’t that difficult to use.

How did you get on shooting with this camera?

I must say I didn’t find it easy figuring the lighting conditions correctly. For example, I wanted to shoot outdoors and I used the flash, but the object I was taking a picture of got overexposed. Managing a distance also needs a little bit of working on, especially for the close-ups. Unfortunately, I didn’t figure out how to change the lens while I was shooting on the streets so I only used one lens. I really liked some of the outcomes though. There is a melancholic feel about those instant shots. I would love to give it another go when the weather is slightly better and it’s not that gloomy outside.

What did you choose to shoot?

I wanted to shoot inside the old hydraulic power station near my house where the exhibition of Annie Leibovitz took place but photography was not permitted there so I photographed my neighborhood instead. It was exciting to compare how the same vistas would look compared with the iPhone shots or the ones I took with my other film cameras, such as Horizon and Hasselblad for example. There are also few shots from my recent trip to Brussels.

Any tips for other people using this camera?

Practice, practice, practice! It is a learning curve of trials and errors.

For more information visit Julija Svetlova's website.

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