The Lo-Fi Itch

It's funny how sometimes the latest/greatest technology elicits almost a Newtonian tug in the opposite direction in me. I get a new Macbook but lust over a 1960's Italian typewriter. Or, I get a fancy road bike only to find myself favoring a mutant 80's singlespeed.

This time, it's my new (completely amazing) iPhone 4. And no, I didn't go out and buy a rotary (although the thought has crossed my mind) -- I bought a cheap, Chinese toy camera. Huh? Let me explain. As I began the fun yet often unsatisfying slog through the App store, the photo apps caught my eye. The basic iPhone camera, though high quality for a phone, is also pretty bare bones in terms of its features. You point and and you shoot. Some of these apps (like the one I got) put a cool effect onto the pics in your phone's camera roll. It's an effect similar to those ambiguous photos that indie bands put on the insert of their albums. Super saturated colors, blurry, almost haphazard photos that look like they were either taken by toddlers without sufficiently good motor skills or by some coked-out hippie in the 70's. Like this one (a quickie I took on my iPhone of my shelf of vinyl):

Cool, right? I guess, but it felt a little empty. It felt like I was cheapening the effect and artistry of these photographs, like tacking a chintzy aftermarket exhaust onto an utterly vanilla sedan. A few hours of internet sleuthing later, I was becoming immersed in the culture of lo-fi photography. Sometimes called lomography after the famous Russian LOMO camera, this genre elicits the cries of adoration of many as well as the collective groans of perhaps many more. The same criticisms of bands like Best Coast or Wavves, that the fuzziness of the work is only a cover for a lack of talent (so not true wrt Best Coast!), befalls many artists partaking in lomography.

And so, in spite of the flack I'll catch for already being an insufferable "hipster", I decided to take the plunge and try lo-fi photography the way it's meant to be.(1) My new Holga 135BC will be shipping out this weekend and a whole new obsession will begin. But that doesn't mean my other obsession (records!!) will end. No, no, no -- I plan to take my new toy to visit my other toys at the record store very, very soon.(2)

Anyone want to go on a photo adventure with me??

FN1. Well, "almost mean to be" because the true lo-fi photographer would purchase the Holga 120, which uses an odd-sized film (120) that I'm pretty sure no lab in the Twin Cities processes. And, since I AM on a students' budget, a 35mm camera makes a whole lot of sense. Especially since I'm probably not going to be very good at this.

FN2. Oh, and if I ever become that sad-eyed hipster, slinking around the shadows of a party with a smug look on my face and with a whisper of a mustache tickling my upper lip, nursing a PBR, please kick me hard in the face. Thanks!