Reflections on my Artistic Residency at Lomography HQ - Part One

I have come back after a week of my TEN AND ONE Artistic Residency at Lomography HQ in Vienna with my head full of ideas and projects that I would like to start and try out. Spending a whole week with people with so much talent is very inspiring. Every conversation was packed with information and advice about cameras, films, chemicals and an infinity of topics related to the world of Lomograpy. By the end of the week I have a book (almost) full of tips, anecdotes and pure Lomographic love.

The majority of these tips require a number of steps to be able to carry out. Nonetheless, the thing that caught my attention the most was that everbody had simple tricks, that are ideal to put into practice on your next LomoWalk. So I decided to make this small compendium and to share it with the Lomography community.

Here goes!

Roberto Fiuza (@robertofiuza)

If you usually shoot from the ground up (on the tube platform or on the sidewalk) you will have noticed that a lot of it appears on the image as it is taken from ground level. What Roberto does is really interesting, he puts a coin on the ground and that serves a mini tripo that elevates the camera an amount that is enought to be able to capture an angle that is much more interesting:

Kamila Kulik (@kamila_k)

In the age of selfies and their immediacy, obtaining a self-portrait that leaves you breathless is not something simple and it is here that Kamila is a real expert. Kamila likes preparing her frame down to the very detail and making sure that every single thing is in place. Once she has in her head what she wants and has seen it clearly, she takes a photo with her phone to show the person who is going to shoot exactly what she is looking for. And that's how she gets marvels like this with her Holga:

Edward Conde (@edwardconde)

My brother from another mother, as he likes to say, Eddie was the perfect travel buddy and what he is capable of achieving with his Instax camera is really amazing. He knows a lot about photography and processes, but when you talk to him about instant photography his face lights up.

I was telling him that the hardest thing for me was to correct the parallax error on my Lomo'Instant Wide, and with a great smile he says: 'use the viewfinder only to get your framing on the horizontal level. Afterwards move the camera in front of your face while shooting and in this way correcting a little. You will look a bit ridiculous with the camera against your nose, but with practice you will improve your framing.' It's a case of look at his photos and know that this man knows what he's talking about:

Yoshitaka Goto (@gocchin)

For me, Yoshi is the equivalent of a rockstar of the Lomographic world (I was starstruck and everything when I met him) and listening to him sharing his knowledge in the art of double exposures was simply dazzling. Yoshi shared with us his tip on how to make sure the two doubles match up and it is something that we can all do.

Yoshi uses a strip of tape to stick the tip of the film on his LC-A+, to make sure that the film does not move. Then he marks the sprocket hole where he grabbed the camera film initially and he also marks the first frame on the camera, making sure that the images match up when you pass through the same roll of film. You end up with marvels such as this:

Claudia Sajeva (@-dakota-)

It has been years since I know her, but the funny thing is that for me she had always been Dakota. I know her work thanks to her LomoHome, but I had never seen her face and was not aware of her name, so having the opportunity to unvirtualize her was brilliant.

Claudia creates wonders with her LC-A+ and has a tip that I think sounds really good when you have low levels of light, you don't have a tripod and you do not have a surgeon's grip (which is my case). What Claudia does is take whoever happens to be near her, she puts her arm through the other person's arm and in this way she ensures having the stability required for the terrible double click of the LC-A+ in low light. The fact of being so simple is what makes this tip so useful!

Don't miss the second part of this note! Watch this space.

written by Mario Ferrer on 2018-01-08 #gear #people #places #tutorials