LOMO report October 2011

Hi, I meant to contribute a write up the work that was done for Lomo. But I think like most of the volunteers who contributed pictures if was much more fun taking pictures than it was to sit down and actually write it. LOMO itself, from a creative approach, doesn't seem like the type of thing that is about the input of one individual and is all about constructing a bigger eclectic image. I think this was what made it so much fun in that there were two separate stages to the projects' consummation. The first part being the early discussion of ideas that was held between the volunteers who met at the end of summer and then the later meetings in October where everyone got together to actually put the pictures together to see what would happen. In the end we had between 15-20 people contributing pictures which grew from an original number of about 6 or 7, these being myself, Martin and the MW team, Ann, Sharon, Igor, Matt and Steven if I remember. Each volunteer was given an option of using a LOMO camera, old instant with improvised colour filter or phone app to complete the task and achieve the retro photo style effect that is the LOMO trademark. Though there was a prize given to the person who recruited the most volunteers for the exhibit, I think most of the volunteers took the challenge merely for the pure joy of taking colourful snaps and doing something out of the ordinary. Early on during the project the team had calculated that we would need atleast 1200 pics to create and image which would cover the wall space in the gallery. Each of the wall spaces had a size of between 5 by 10 feet so the actual installation would need some careful pre-planning and alot of pictures. I'd had some doubts as to whether all of the pictures from each of the 3 sets of canon 36 shot films given to each us would come out in the development but I think most of them did. I'd resorted to taking some interesting blurry pictures using my phone along with the instant plastic camera I'd found in a charity shop as I was concerned we'd run out! Fortunately there were enough volunteers and I think everyone had similar worries and there was more than enough to fill the wall space. On the day of the installation Steven had made a rough diagram of a rainbow design to fit the different coloured 4by6 pictures on to. It took some time to draw the pencil lines on each of the cardboard panels which would eventually slot together to create the wall pattern and then some further cutting where some of the panels didn't fit together. I think we were all surprised how easy it was to fit the panels together after we had decided on the design. Once the first design was completed we then discovered that we could just as easily create a second smaller image without relying upon diagram. It became just about finding the right colours to match the pattern and putting them in a symmetrical order. Some of the pictures needed to be adjusted or moved about where the pattern didn't quite flow and we were lucky there weren't any accidents of panels being glued together so it meant the whole day went very smoothly. Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who contributed pictures to the exhibition.