The Best of Lomography in 2018: A Year-End Review
17 57 Share TweetBefore we list down fresh goals and dreams for the future of analogue in 2019, first, we feast and recall the memories, milestones, and achievements we achieved over the course of 2018. From transforming the classic Diana to an instant camera, exciting collaborations to new film formulas, here's what happened in the Lomography Community last year.
Instant-Forward: Lomo’Instant Editions and the Year of Diana
Innovating the analogue photography experience is part of Lomography’s goals, and such feat was achieved through the creation of the Diana Instant Square. Taking the surreal aesthetics (think of dreamy soft focus and natural vignettes) that were produced with the classic Diana camera, the DISQ further widened the possibilities and promoted experimentalist approaches on square-format instant film. The DISQ comes either in a brown leather edition or the iconic blue housing inspired by the Diana F+ camera. The DISQ was launched in Kickstarter and became an instant hit as it received strong support from 2,124 backers.
The most popular instant cameras for 2018 were the Lomo'Instant Automat Glass Magellan Edition, the first instant camera with a wide-angle glass lens, and the Lomo’Instant Square Glass Pigalle Edition, the first square-format instant camera with a glass lens.
Of course, we didn’t forget to upgrade the Lomo’Instant closet for brand new editions! This year, we took inspiration from the theme of adventure and natural scenery as we made the Lomo’Instant Automat Riviera, Lomo’Instant Explorer, and Lomo’Instant Automat Glass Elbrus.
Creative Collaborations
It’s been a great year for the analogue community as we helped out artists and partners of creativity. Famous artist Tom Sachs teamed up with us to transform the Lomo’Instant Automat into a sculpture. Musician Conner Youngblood’s LomoKino-made music video for his new song “12 lbs” was also a highlight for this year.
The Lomographic Society International at Work
For us, the future is analogue. To further expand our goal, we organized several exhibitions across the globe. The New York Gallery Store kept itself busy and even recently moved from West 8th Street to studio Brooklyn. Here are some event highlights that occurred in our NYC hub:
- Lomography NYC x Arlo SoHo: Instant and Instagram Photography Workshop
- Solo Exhibition by Sincere
- Farewell Party from Lomo NYC in West 8th Street
Things were also productive in our London Gallery Store as the team joined with different creative partners. Let\s reminisce with the 2018 happenings in Soho, London:
- Diana F+ Workshop
- Lomography Soho x Museum of London: Simple Use Film Camera Workshops
- Lomography Soho x Raindance: Cult To Culture: Skippy's Archive the Cult of RAINDANCE: A History of Misbehaving 1989 – 2009
Our Gallery Store in Paris went all-out this year too with new achievements and iconic team-ups with artists:
- LomoWall in Point Éphémère
- Lomo'Instant Square Party at Artazart
- Lomography Paris x Ryder the Eagle's Book Launch
Our team in the Asia-Pacific has been the most progressive as it organized seven exhibitions in the continent. Most of them had unique themes and goals when it came to spreading the analogue love. Here are some of our favorite events that took place:
- Lomography Hong Kong x Lomo'Instant Family Exhibition
- LomoWall Philippines 2018: Happy Childhood Memories
- Lomography Taipei x Erinedon
- Lomography Tokyo x Tokyobike Rentals: LOMORIDE
Here's to more groundbreaking showcases for 2019!
The Lomographer's Digest
Our in-house wordsmiths re-modeled Lomography Magazine this year with sharper, smarter, better and more interesting stories and helpful tipsters to further your experimental analogue lifestyle. For 2018, we went after stories that will drive your passion for film. We managed to grab a conversation with Daniel Arnold about his fearless NYC explorations, hunt for chance encounters and brow-raising candid moments. The Community also got hyped with our tipster Liquid Lunacy — A Crazy Cocktail Film Soup Experiment!, one of our latest film soups with the use of sweet tea, rum, peaches, and lime juice. Lomographers also went abuzz with thoughtful insights and opinions in our editorial, Does Your Camera Define Who You Are as a Photographer? We'll make sure to keep you engaged for the newest scoop in 2019 as well!
Actively Analogue: LomoAmigos and Community Members
As promised, we're very proud to say that we've been keeping the analogue spirit alive since January of last year. We met esteemed French actress and analogue photography enthusiast Charlotte Gainsbourg playing with her LC-A+.
Photographer Daniel Stewart became one of our new LomoAmigos this year as Lomography film enthusiast. We introduced Ted Fox Joyce and his ambitious project Rivers of the World with the Lomo'Instant Wide. Singapore-based photographer Lyn Averson joined us in the Community and began shooting fashion portraits with the Lomo'Instant Square. Chinese film enthusiast Li Hui graced our Magazine with her ethereal, Pictorialist snaps with the Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art Lens. We also crossed paths with Hong Kong-based Lomographer Wong Kar Wai, who shared to us his photography with the LomoKino, Diana F+ and LC-Wide.
We received a staggering number of 114,341 submissions in all of the 123 competitions we held for the Community in 2018! We rewarded 898 winners for breaking the boundaries and continuously surprising everyone with their Lomographic approach.
The Community's Choice
The Lomography Community just keeps on growing! Our analogue family just unlocked another milestone as we gained an estimate of 100,000 followers on Instagram. The year 2018 also proved how trendy the Lomographic lifestyle is as we launched the hashtag #heylomography, with over 45,000 photos tagged. We also found out that our Lomographers are such active wanderers and globe-trotters, as our tag was often paired with #travel too. Most of you geo-tagged Paris our feed – looks like the City of Lights is a very popular hotspot among us!
The daring experimentalists have also flooded our feed of shots tagged with #filmsoup and #multipleexposures. Many of our Lomographers on the grid are also eager users of our #artlenses.
The most-binged video is our own tutorial for reloading the Simple Use Film Camera.
Analogue shots taken by lomokev, lomographyuk, and albanvanwassenhove were the most liked photos on social media:
Advancing the Art Lens Experience
We were also busy with improving our very own Art Lens collection! The ultra-wide angle Naiad Art Lens was a happy addition to the Neptune Convertible Art Lens System. The new 15 mm prime lens was made to capture the definitive Lomo look through vibrant colors, contrast and vignetting. The Naiad Art Lens particularly took the spotlight at Photokina this year, and we had a great time introducing the lens among other new photography inventions.
Our Art Lens story for 2018 did not stop there – we also gave the successful Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art Lens a new coating in gold, along with an additional set of special decorative aperture plates. The new aperture plates are also coated in gold and are made to easily switch from sharp to soft focus.
Refashioning Classic and Creative Cameras
We also partied up the analogue spirit by updating some of our classic and creative cameras’ wardrobes. The Lomo LC-A+, Lomo LC-A Wide, and Lomo LC-A 120 were dressed in new styles in celebration of Lomography’s 25th anniversary. The Fisheye No. 2 also got a new style to flaunt in its Caspian Edition, inspired by the golden sun shining down on the Caspian Sea. The Sprocket Rocket 2.0 also got its teal version!
Purple Reigns, F²/400 in Medium-Format, and Welcoming a New B&W Film
Hailed as the most popular film for 2017, it seems everyone just can't get enough of the LomoChrome Purple Film! To meet the demands, we reformulated this fan favorite for better and more powerful purple tones! Expect to capture the world in vibrant purple hues in 2019 as this popular film is now available for preorder, and would be in your hands this year!
We also made a huge follow-up for the Color Negative F²/400 film by launching a medium-format version of the emulsion. Similar to the 35 mm formula, our Lomographers enjoyed the tungsten tones and X-Pro feel with a bigger and more refined canvas.
We also announced our new vintage cinema-inspired panchromatic film, the B&W 400 35 mm Berlin Kino, and it might just have its own following soon thanks to some first impressions coming from film photographers. The consensus? The Berlin Kino 400 film is unlike any other black-and-white film!
The Annual Lomography Hall of Fame
We saved the best for last! Lomography's very backbone is the passionate Community Members who continue to live the creed of the analogue life. We're shouting out to our Top 10 Lomographers for 2018 for such an awesome year!
Of course, our year-end review won't ever be complete without a little showcase of the best compositions. We're ending this section with bang! through this handpicked gallery of the Top 10 Community Photographs:
As we leave 2018 behind, we hope you will also enjoy another year of photographic journey with us! We're already planning for better inventions and surprises (our lips are sealed for now!) that every Lomographer will adore. Cheers to more projects, more milestones, and more shooting with intenser film passion – 2019, here we come!
Start 2019 by joining the Lomography Community! Build your LomoHome and embark your analogue journey!
written by Ciel Hernandez on 2019-01-02
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