“Before there was Instagram and filters and Apps, there was the Lomo. Remember? I like using Instagram and filters and Apps, because yes goddamn it, they are easy. But I also love shooting on my wee Lomo LC-A camera, which – if you believe the folklore – was originally developed as a spy camera for the Russians during the Cold War by the ‘Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association ‘. (And I do.) My Lomo has been a fabulous facilitator – a way to engage with the world around me: on travels, on arrival in new cities and towns where I have lived and especially when times have been tough, where I have felt seriously emotionally bruised, isolated and/or vulnerable. And I have to say I LOVE the waiting involved for a roll of film to be developed – no instant gratification here! The anticipation, the wondering, the im/patience – remember them?! Those feelings that keep your mind healthy, focused and attentive to the world? Is that even a ‘thing’ anymore – waiting in anticipation? Wondering? Boredom? Hankering? Waiting for something is so good for the soul, especially for a roll of film that might only have one good shot on it. One good shot is all it takes – that’ll keep you going for weeks.
Documenting the world around me (be it in photography or through the video docs I make only very occasionally these days), allows me to see the world with clarity – the world ‘as it really is’: for better, for worse, or otherwise..
Love it.” – Megan Spencer is a writer, broadcaster, critic and eclectic creative. See more of her photography at Circus Folk and on her website.
Fantastic images and a lovely kudos to the im/patience of film. Thank you!