Lomography

A type of photography invented by the Lomographic Association, a company founded in the early 90s in Austria to market the Lomo LC-A, a cheap Russian camera which the founders had discovered took strange, high-contrast photos that often featured vignetting (the focus goes soft and the image darkens around the edges). Today Lomography is mainly used to describe the "art" of taking photos with a Lomographic camera, or any camera sold by the Lomographic Association (popular examples include the Fisheye, Lomo LC-A, and Holga). The term is also sometimes used to describe photography using any cheap or quirky cameras. The Lomographic Society has come under very severe criticism for several points, the main one being that the company seems to sell cameras and photographic equipment for far, far more than it's worth. Notable examples include the Lomo LC-A itself, which was around $30 USD when the original Lomographers first purchased it, yet sells for around $250, or the new Diana+, an updated version of a camera that originally sold for $1 that is currently sold by Lomography for $50. The Lomographic Society also seems to emphasize wild experimentation with (expensive) film, which some point out might be a ploy to get consumers to purchase more film from the Lomographic Society themselves. Recently (as in early 2007-ish), the Urban Outfitters chain of stores have begun to stock Lomographic cameras, giving the brand a much larger audience to cavort around green pastures snapping photos willy-nilly and calling it art. (As much as I hate the Lomographic Society for their sales practices, I must admit that I do regularly use my Lomo LC-A, as well as my Holga and my Diana+. I also buy film from them very often. Hey, it's a mean business practice, but Lomography is fun as shit.)