Holga - author Adam Scott

The world through a plastic lens.

People are taking technically better pictures all the time, exposure and focus are fully automated so in theory there really isn’t much that can go wrong – well at least nothing in the average picture taking situation. Digital cameras and image editing applications have played a vital role in improved techniques and image quality. Photographers can preview images before moving on to the next scene, so there’s no more excuses for a failed picture. The fact is that bad image quality today is generally not down to poor equipment.

Now lets go to the other extreme, take a low tech roll film camera made in Hong Kong, with minimal settings, a camera that may also leak light onto the film and the film advance doesn’t always space the frames out correctly. A surefire recipe for disaster – well no, it could be a recipe for creative minded photographers to show that great pictures can be created with almost any equipment.

I have just received an inspired book called “Holga – The world through a plastic lens”. Written by Adam Scott. The book is exquisitely illustrated with images taken by numerous photographers using a Holga camera. The 308 page book is packed with over 500 images, together with full details of the various Holga cameras and technique tips. The pictures may not be technically perfect, especially when compared to photographs taken with today’s state of the art digital gear, but they ooze with creative inspiration, even if your an avid digital camera user the Holga book will have something to interest you. Although many of the techniques could be duplicated via Photoshop, the element of the unpredictable plays a major role in the success of Lomography and the Holga camera.

A great book full of inspiration, well designed, well printed and nicely compiled by Adam Scott.

Highly recommended – even if you never intend owning a Holga camera

Price £13.44 or 20 Euro – Hardback

Available on line at

http://shop.lomography.com/shop/main.php?cat=&pro=plb

10 golden rules for Lomography

• Take your camera everywhere you go
• Use it anytime day and night
• Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it
• Try the shot from the hip
• Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible
• Don’t think
• Be fast
• You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film
• Nor afterwards
• Don’t worry about any rules