The year: 1992. The place: Vienna. A cool place to be at an exciting time. The Wall had come down, the USSR soon was falling apart, and it seemed like East and West were finally coming together. A few Gen Xers were able to take advantage of their unique placement in time and place and accidentally changed the art of photography for decades. Nothing earth-shattering as a global superpower having to reacclimate itself to the global community, but a big deal to the right crowd.
Much has been said and written about it, but the backstory breaks down like this: a small group of college friends in Vienna encountered a camera that was very seldom seen to the west of the Iron Curtain until those days. That camera was the Lomo LC-A, a little black plastic camera in the vein of the Olympus XA2. Nothing too fancy - pocketable, zone focus, auto-exposure, no built-in flash... but a particularly "magic" 32mm Minitar lens. They were kind of ubiquitous; the manufacturer made loads of these little cameras, reaching all over the Warsaw Pact nations. So it stands to reason that once they could start to see the rest of Europe and the world, Eastern Europeans would bring these dependable little cameras with them. Those Viennese students would make friends with them and the cultural exchange would include this 35mm workhorse.
Soon enough, these friends would create the Lomographic Society, a group of LC-A owners who would enter into an agreement with ten Golden Rules to abide by. It was like Lars Von Trier's Dogme 95 filmmaking group, who imposed (and almost immediately abandoned) a list of restrictions upon themselves to then paradoxically inspire creativity. Luckily, the Lomo Golden Rules are less about restriction and more about celebration of the act of photography and the results thereof.
A few years ago, I found myself having a bit of an identity crisis when it came to my approach to photography, essentially causing me to stop taking photos for a little while. My problem essentially boiled down to talking myself into going full frame and abandoning the Micro Four Thirds system. I succumbed to the temptation of using 35mm lenses on a sensor that wouldn't crop them, having "proper" depth of field, etc. I lost sight of what mattered: were my pictures any good? Maybe more crucial: was I having any fun? One night I found myself stubmling across the Lomography Golden Rules and the next day fell back in love with my M43 gear. I'd been considering selling it, but had I done that, I probably would've fallen out of love with the art form altogether.
Nowadays, I consider the Golden Rules when looking at what camera to use and when. And it certainly helps me embrace what comes out of my camera at the same time. Let's take a look at the rules and I'll give you my interpretations and how I use them. And before we begin, I suppose I should address this elephant: Is a phone an acceptable camera? I guess, but I see no soul in the phone snapshot. My phone's lens is more like a record-keeper for me, it remembers IKEA bin numbers for me and proves to my wife that the flavor of salad dressing she wants from the store is, in fact, not in stock. There is no art there. On to the rules.
1. TAKE YOUR CAMERA EVERYWHERE YOU GO. No doubt, this is about as important as any rule I could think of when it comes to photography. (Besides Garry Winogrand's immortal advice, "Keep shooting.") You can't take a picture without having a camera on you in the first place. But do you think and RB67 is gonna be a practical camera to keep slung over your shoulder on an evening stroll? Or on a trip you've been planning for months? No, of course not. You need a portable, light, quick camera to capture those unpredictable moments. Use the right tool for the job.
2. USE IT ANYTIME - DAY OR NIGHT. Great moments and worthy memories exist 24/7, so I stay strapped at all times. I think that's why I'm so fond of faster lenses. You can't be sure if you'll be in a low-light situation, and using flash is often a faux pas. If I can get a nice, compact, fast prime in my pocket, I know I have what it takes to get the shot whenever the opportunity arises.