Community Spotlight: Tornado Terrible (@deafness) and Ralph Hart (@lieutenant_pigeon)

Being one of the largest analogue photography communities on the web, we are proud of the creativity and diversity of our members. For this month's Community Spotlight, we are pleased to introduce to you Lomographers Tornado Terrible (@deafness) and Ralph Hart (@lieutenant_pigeon)  and their unique way of seeing the world.

Name: Tornado Terrible
LomoHome: @DEAFNESS
Location: Nishinomiya or Hakusan, Japan

Hi, @deafness! What do you do and what got you started with photography?

I walk around with my camera in my small world. It's a hobby for me.

How did you discover Lomography and what made you join our analogue Community? Who are your favorite photographers here?

About 10 years ago, I joined the Instagram community with my mobile devices. At that time, I felt that Instagram was a pure, cool community for independent people who love photographs (or something like that). But, one day, it became a chatting site triggered by photos. So, I became @deafness and stopped using it altogether.

My first experience with photos is with IG. So, I guess I'm sort of a digital native. After that, I got a FUJIFILM X-T2 (that was a cool digital mirrorless camera) with old and cheap manual focused lenses. I studied the basics of the camera with that starter setup. Relations between shutter speed, aperture value, light value, and ISO. That's almost all of them. Easy-to-use analogue cameras came after that. We should thank those who made digital cameras that followed the footsteps of the analogue era. Persons who have only taken pictures with mobile phones will never understand. Now, I understand my father's generations' way of taking photos, the importance of things like albums and rolls of film. And this is something that the Lomography community truly understands.

All persons who I follow. especially @bianot, @gabyo, @liaye, @slim_phoebe, and @popoti. Although, I am sure that they will increase from now on.

What is your favorite subject to photograph? What do you usually look for in a scene before you hit the shutter?

My family but I can't share all of them here. The scene usually appears before me. I don't look for it.

In this day and age, why choose film?

We can't know the result of hitting the shutter before consuming one cartridge of film. That's the destiny of our actions. No one can go back. It's just fun.

What does a perfect day look like for you?

Taking pictures of my family. Sharing those albums with them. Imagining my family looking at the albums after I'm long gone.

Name: Ralph Hart
LomoHome: @Lieutenant_Pigeon
Location: Dover, Kent, UK

Hi, Ralph! What do you do and what got you started with photography?

What do I do? Well, I work in the logistics industry and it has kept me in gainful employment since 1985. I got into logistics by accident — when I left college in 1985, I took the first job offered to me with the intention of doing it for a year or maybe 18 months whilst I decided what to do with the rest of my life, that was 35 years ago! Logistics isn't the most glamorous gig in the world but it pays the bills and buys the odd shiny thing.

How did I get started in photography? It was on a family holiday in Milford on Sea in Hampshire when I was seven years old and I fell in love with Annie. She was a little blue roll film camera of questionable build quality and very dubious optical performance. But to a seven-year-old, it was the most magical thing imaginable even though the results were fairly terrible. Sadly, Annie was only a holiday romance as she fell apart not long after the holiday ended, but Annie sowed the seed that still flourishes to this day.

How did you discover Lomography and what made you join our analogue Community? Who are your favorite photographers here?

I found Lomography quite by accident. I'd run out of film and needed more quickly so I paid a quick trip to Boots and they had three packs of Lady Grey so I purchased a couple. I became curious about Lomography so I fired up Google found and found that it was a welcoming place and so started posting some of my photos to gauge reaction. To my surprise, I started racking up likes. There are many Lomographers whose work I admire but I guess some of the standouts are @lafilledeer, @vicuna, and @lomodesbro. This trio of Lomographers produce works of great beauty.

What makes you stay with film photography in this day and age? What's your favorite subject to shoot?

So why do I stick with film? A variety of reasons — firstly film is a tactile medium, whatever process the film is subjected to is done by hand, from loading it into the camera, developing the exposed film and finally scanning the negatives. I worry that in this digital age, humans are going to forget what their hands are for. Also, I find that there's a truth with film that you don't get with digital. Don McCullin summed it up beautifully when he said: "Photography is the truth if it's being handled by a truthful person."

My favorite subjects tend to be whatever catches my eye but if pushed, I'd have to say steam locomotives. There's a certain majesty about a steam locomotive that a modern diesel or electric locomotive just doesn't possess and I try to capture this majesty on film.

For you, what's the best part about being a Lomographer?

I'm often thought of as being strange for using a 'dead' technology so for me the best part of being a Lomographer is being surrounded by a global community of kindred spirits.

What is your favorite Lomography camera and film and why?

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't own a Lomography camera, however, a peek in my camera cupboard would reveal assorted Contax and Yashica cameras. My current favorite is the G1, an all-electronic rangefinder that prompted howls of outrage from the Leica purists on its release in 1994. They claimed that it wasn't a true rangefinder. However, it is a rangefinder as it uses two mirrors, although coupled electronically.

I've given a fair bit of thought to my favorite film and I'm not sure I have one; I tend to choose my film on what kind of pictures I'm going take and/or what light I'm expecting and whether I'm shooting color of black and white. That said, I love Lady Grey. It's a great all-around black and white film that produces fantastic images. I've always got several rolls in my film box. My favorite color film is a toss-up between Portra 160 or Pro-image 100 — both are excellent films that produce stunning images.

Stay tuned for our monthly Community Spotlight to discover the work of some of the most talented Lomographers!

written by cheeo on 2020-04-19 #community-spotlight #deafness #lieutenant_pigeon