Collaborating in Lomography

The Collaboration:
Flickr has some pretty awesome things to offer. Take this collaboration I stumbled upon between Liad Cohen (OuroborosX on Flickr) and Megan McDuffie. Both are lomographers (more on that later) who have taken photos on a roll of film and then forwarded the film to the other. Read Liad's comment to understand more:

I think that this is a pretty amazing idea. First you have photos that are completely unique to this person (chances are that no one else has take all of these exact photos before) and then you add the second element of adding photos that are completely unique to this person, making for a totally random occurrence of photography.

The Lomography part:
Lomography is essentially a new spin on old photography- film photography to be specific. It began in the 1991 with a group of Viennese students visiting the Czech Republic. They came across a LOMO LC-A camera and subsequently bought a few on their trip. They took rolls of film in sporadic fashion. Apparently they were "charmed by the unique, colorful, and sometimes blurry" photographs. As were their family and friends since the popularity of this camera spread from there!

However, at this time this camera was going out of production, so this spirited group of people went to Russia where the camera was made and convinced the makers to continue producing them (since the demand was so strong).

In the end, the students formed a society of for Lomography and marketed the camera and the style of photography. The motto of Lomography is "don't think, just shoot". It is about being in the moment and capturing it just as it is. They also promote "shooting from the hip". There are 10 golden rules of Lomography to help you in your pursuits.

"The 10 golden rules are here to erase all traces of your photographer educations especially if you never have had one. Inhale them carefully and be prepared to forget everything you never wanted to know"

Lomography is not for every photographer, but I think that every photographer can learn something from the philosophy. Sometimes as photographers we ma be afraid to take risks (less so with the onset of digital photography, but nonetheless applicable). Lomography inspires us to not be afraid to "just shoot" and find out later what exactly you have captured. Too often fail to see how things really are- we want to see things in a certain way. And that's just not reality. So whether you embrace Lomography wholeheartedly or just think it's cool, it has something for everyone.