I'll start with the story.

Lomography began with the St. Petersburg, and at that time Leningrad LOMO plant. The name stands for “Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Association”. In 1984, the Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Association LOMO launched mass production of the first domestic small-sized automatic camera LOMO COMPACT-AUTOMAT (LK-A).

The camera was carefully copied by Soviet military experts from the Japanese COSINA CX-2 camera, which was donated to the Deputy Minister of the USSR Ministry of Defense, Pyotr Ivanovich Kornitsky at the international film exhibition in Cologne. The stunning similarity between the Japanese and Soviet cameras was explained by the fact that the deputy minister of the defense industry demanded that our camera be “like Japanese” both inside and out. The Japanese camera on “LOMO” was unscrewed, all 450 details were copied, but the defense industry specialists, who produced homing heads for missiles (GSN 9E410), periscopes for submarines, laser sights of ship fire control systems, could not copy the Japanese electronic shutter due to the lack of appropriate technology, due to which the design of the domestic analogue of the Japanese camera had to be greatly simplified. So that the Soviet camera would not be inferior to the western prototype, the LK-A was equipped with wide-angle optics and an innovative automatic exposure system, available at that time only in expensive professional cameras, which allowed photographing in all lighting conditions. Photos taken by LK-A have a large depth of field, bright saturated colors and characteristic darkened edges of the pictures. So the first instrument for lomography appeared. But he was regarded as an ordinary camera, not bearing in its guise anything attractive and attractive. available at that time only in expensive professional cameras, which allowed photographing in all lighting conditions. Photos taken by LK-A have a large depth of field, bright saturated colors and characteristic darkened edges of the pictures. So the first instrument for lomography appeared. But he was regarded as an ordinary camera, not bearing in its guise anything attractive and attractive. available at that time only in expensive professional cameras, which allowed photographing in all lighting conditions. Photos taken by LK-A have a large depth of field, bright saturated colors and characteristic darkened edges of the pictures. So the first instrument for lomography appeared. But he was regarded as an ordinary camera, not bearing in its guise anything attractive and attractive.

About the origin of culture.

In spring Prague, 1991, students of the Vienna School of the Arts, Matthias Figl and Wolfgang Stranzinger, bought very cheap Soviet LK-A cameras at a thrift store for $ 12 each. Enjoying the taste of Budweiser beer, students filmed everything on their cheap expired film that caught their eye without considering the construction of frames and without looking into the viewfinder.

In Vienna, the Austrians put together a multi-colored photopanel from hundreds of photographs and were delighted with the purchase: the colors in the photo were bright and intense, the pictures emitted some mental waves of heat. Due to the significant color and geometric distortions of the lens, the camera had a specific view of the world, and the lack of deliberate construction of the frame documented “life as it is” - students began to call this look “lomography”.

Spread.

Upon returning to the Vienna School of Art, students quickly planted their friends and their acquaintances, teachers and their families on lomography. We started organizing photo exhibitions and registered a cultural union - the Lomographic Society (DIE LOMOGRAPHISCHE GESSELSCHAFT) with headquarters in Vienna. Matthias and Wolfgang became his lomopresidents. The first exhibition was a great success. Over the next two years, lomopresidents personally bought cameras cheaply wholesale and retail in all countries of Eastern Europe and sold them to their followers at $ 100 apiece. Meanwhile, the society of lomographs expanded, with new exhibitions the movement became more and more famous.
By 1994, all LK-A cameras were purchased by the Lomographic Society and the mainstream of the movement sent a fax to LOMO OJSC. The fax said that in Austria alone, more than 300 people were in love with the miniature Soviet LK-A camera and would like to organize a photo exhibition in Moscow. But at the LOMO factory, the fax was taken as a joke and went into the bin. The first meeting of the scrap community and the directors of the LOMO plant took place in December of the same year. The Austrian Parliament and V.V. Putin took part in preparing for the organization of the meeting. The final point of the meeting was the conclusion of an agreement on the exclusive supply of LK-A to the Lomographic community. And it, in turn, becomes the exclusive distributor of LomoCompacts around the world.

"LOMO - LOve & MOtion" The modern arsenal of LOMOgrafista.

1. LOMO-Compact Avtomat (LKA, LCA) - the first Soviet pocket camera equipped with a wide-range automatic electronic shutter controlled by an electronic exposure meter. The camera has a rugged body, lightweight and compact, as well as ease of use. Specifications:

• Film Width - 35 mm
• Frame Size - 24 × 36 mm
• Number of frames - up to 36
• Focal Length - 32 mm
• Relative aperture - 1: 2,8
• Angle of view - 63 degrees
• The limits of focus - from 0.8 m to infinity
• Aperture Range - 2.8 to 16
• Shutter speeds - from 1/500 s to 2 s
• Viewfinder - Telescopic
• Flashlight Sync System - Type X
• Tripod Mount Thread - ¼ "
• Overall dimensions - 107 × 68 × 43.5 mm * Weight - 0.25 kg
• Photography modes - automatic and with setting parameters on the distance scale (0.8 m; 1.5 m; 3 m; infinity)
• Film sensitivity range - from 16 to 250 (from ASA 100 to ASA 1600 for LCA +)

The most important advantages of this model are an electronic light meter, the use of a 35 mm film, and a hot shoe for an external flash.
In Moscow, in Republic stores, the device costs about 11,000 rubles.
You can also get modern Lomographic devices such as Holga and Diana

2. Holga - a native of Hong Kong, has conquered a large number of hearts around the world. A plastic lens, an angular case, a medium format film are not flaws, in this case they are virtues that help you plunge into the deepest layers of Lomography.
Among its advantages is also a built-in flash, shutter speeds, aperture selection, distance selection, multiple exposure. It is possible to choose the color of the flash by switching the color filters that are located directly inside the lamp. The only serious problem is finding the 120th film.

3. Diana is the predecessor of Holga. Despite this, her arsenal has a huge selection of additional accessories, such as external flashes, additional lenses, waterproof cases. The camera itself has such amenities as exposure modes, aperture selection, multi-exposure distance selection, pinhole, and an additional flash connector.

The lomographic community reckons a good bunch of devices to this list, the list includes both 2 objective devices and 9 objective, various kinds of Fisheye devices. But you can look at them on the website of the Lomographic community.

The most interesting and attractive in Lomography is that the result obtained on the card is not known in advance. And the frame that was tuned in for several hours will be completely uninteresting, and the frame taken accidentally when I put the camera in my pocket will capture an amazing plot, with beautiful shadows and amazing vignetting.

Based on materials from www.wikipedia.org , Lomographic Embassy in Russia , InfPort