Being a Lomographer for a few years now, I laughed when I first saw the iPhone apps that tried so hard to be analogue. I thought that there would never be anything that compared to the real thing. Well—I was wrong.
Recently I took some vacation time, and I decided that the iPhone would be the only camera that I would take with me. I have been pretty disappointed with a lot of the pictures that I’ve taken with my phone in the past. So I downloaded the apps of Art&Mobile, thinking that it might make my vacation photos a little more interesting. It turned out that all the photos I took on my trip ended up being from OldCamera and QuadCamera. They have now both become my favourite iPhone apps.
So now I’m sure the question that people will ask me is whether I’m done with Lomography and using film. Quite the opposite—this now offers a completely different dimension to my photography. I realized again how fun using The Ten Golden Rules was, but now I was doing it with my phone.
I thought long and hard about whether I would be offending the world of Lomography by “cheating” and using these apps. Then it hit me. I realized that these iPhone apps were merely like choosing a different film stock for my iPhone. Like Lomography, the success of the photo can be determined by the film stock chosen. But I also realized that it’s not so much about the device, it’s really about the individual who is using it. So stock up your iPhone with some new film stock, and have fun. In my mind, this is still Lomography, and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
Posted by August 18, 2009 permalink
