Cellography

"Taste" taken with my hand-me-down Nokia E65, flouro lighting.

This post was inspired by Flickr images called lomography - expired film, film cameras and cross film processing techniques!

Lomography is actually a commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, Austria, which was in turned inspired by the Russian Lomo LC-A camera. According to the Wikipedia article:

"In 1991, the Austrian founders of Lomography discovered the Lomo LC-A. As the company states, they were "charmed by the unique, colourful, and sometimes blurry" images that the camera produced. After a series of international art exhibitions and aggressive marketing work, Lomography signed an exclusive distribution agreement with LOMO PLC — thereby becoming the sole distributor of all Lomo LC-A cameras outside of the Soviet Union."

The pictures and the "techniques" emphasized casual everyday and common snapshots, with exaggerated, over-saturated colours, "happy accidents", blurring, oft-kilter exposures and alternative film and photo processing; all of which can be re-created using digital cameras and Photoshop.

But I think the best and closest casual shots would be best re-created by cell or mobile phones inbuilt digital cameras. I have seen more than a couple of these imaginative artists on Flickr and other photo sharing sites posting their creations using no more than a cell phone camera; and no mucking around with Photoshop or any digital software.

Both Lomography and cellography pushes the proverbial envelope and produces images than can be "construed" as art - images that not only look good and but pleasantly imaginative. Just Google some of these images and you will see what I mean.

On another note, see http://www.hupix.net/, an online gallery of "stunning simplicity of elegant images made with" Hugh Scott-Symonds [a British film director] cell phone [a Sony Ericsson K800i]. Better still, go and have a look at the "pin-hole camera" black and white pictures of Australian photographer, Rob Gardiner; who, by the way, also creates and dabbles with expired Polaroid SX-70 and Type 55 film. Talking about pushing the envelop, an expired one at that!