Life and Lens of a plastic Princess

Poisson Du Jour · Feb 18, 2011

Let's see how the art movement puts the Diana and lomography to creative use.
A quirky exhibition made up from the cute little plastic fantastic is coming to Melbourne on 25th February.

This item in The Age is entertaining reading, reciting the background of lomography and its counter-culture that started in Prague in 1991.

The Diana World Tour arrives at No Vacancy Gallery, 34-40 Jane Bell Lane, Melbourne city on February 25 until March 11. Workshops will be held at the gallery on February 26 and March 5. The Customised Clones eBay auction ends on March 31.

Mick Fagan · Feb 19, 2011

I read it in the Age as well, could be an interesting exhibition, I will be endeavouring to see it.

Mick.

Yamaotoko · Feb 21, 2011

Sounds like something to try and venture the family along to, Laura loves Dianas.

chriscrawfordphoto · Feb 21, 2011

Plastic cameras were discovered by the art world with the original Dianas back in the 70s. Lomography did not start this. There's a gallery in New York that has had a "Crappy Camera Show" since those early days.

My grandpa's mailbox, shot with an original Diana from the 1970s back in 1997

Alex Bishop-Thorpe · Feb 21, 2011

Lomography is a brand, and I do wish they'd stop trying to say it's a movement. It's just pictorialism for another generation. That said, I still dig it, and I like how much film they're all buying - and I'd pop in to see this if I was on that side of the country, for sure.

Poisson Du Jour · Feb 22, 2011

No need to engage in semantics, just go to the exhibition. It's film-based remember?

gandolfi · Feb 22, 2011

Semantics or not - my biggest "problem" is, that there's a world of difference between the original Diana images and the Holga's, called Diana+...

But filmbased photography is allways worth to see...

Nicholas Lindan · Feb 22, 2011

chriscrawfordphoto said:
Plastic cameras were discovered by the art world with the original Dianas back in the 70s.

Ha! I got my first Krappy Kam in 1960 - http://junkstorecameras.com/EmpireBaby.htm - even at the age of 7 3/4's I was très artiste.

If I remember the story, a photography instructor at some university was getting royally PO'ed at his students for being gear-obsessed and went out and bought a few grocery store bags of Dianas, handed them out to the class and told them they could put their Nikannontaxes away for the rest of the semester.

So now students compete on who's camera is the crapiest. My niece went out and spent $100 on a Diana clone at Keeble & Suchat this semester. Rudolph and Kingslake wept. So did I, I would gladly have sold her a genuine vintage Diana for $250.

It is probably a good thing it was a clone. Vintage Dianas are made of such bad plastic that it literally crumbles in one's hands.

nhemann · Feb 22, 2011

I entered the Krappy Kamera show this year - but apparently my shots were not Krappy enough. I'm definitely looking forward to heading over there and seeing the photos that out Krapped mine...

lapzod · Feb 23, 2011

One of my first film cameras I brought was a Diana F+...and I loved it, it's what got me in to film photography.
The next step was a Canon AE1-P, and even recently a Kiev 4...

I understand the...annoyance? at the lomo brand, but I don't think it's an entirely bad thing...I showed my mum my Diana F+ and she laughed, and remembered when she had one as a kid.

Since moving on from it, it now sits proudly on my wall unit, as a cool looking camera (it glows in the dark!)

I'll drop by the exhibition. It's nice to see the lomo tour hit Australia.

gandolfi · Feb 23, 2011

lapzod said:
I showed my mum my Diana F+ and she laughed, and remembered when she had one as a kid.

.

that's my point: she didn't! She had an original Diana.

Two different cameras - different lenses, and with very different look...

(personally I think the Diana actually "just" is a Holga in disguise...)

lapzod · Feb 23, 2011

She had an original Diana, I don't, but it brought back the memories from when she was using it.

I don't doubt that the Diana+ is different, and in fact, I've been trying to track down an "original" one, but don't really want to fork out the money for it that people online are trying to sell them for.

(I bought the Diana+ purely because all my mates had the Holga, and I wanted something that at least looked different)

I'm just kinda bummed that I wasn't around for a lot of the plastic camera era

Poisson Du Jour · Feb 23, 2011

My sister tells me I played around with plastic cameras in the early 1970s (along with using tripods as battering rams...), but typical of her she has "no idea" what they were. Mentioned "Dianas?" but it drew a blank. I'd love to know what it was.

Vaughn · Feb 23, 2011

From one of the "original" Diana Cameras -- a thrift store buy a couple years ago for 75 US cents.

My boys on a boiler from an old shipwreck, North Jetty, Humboldt Bay. Expired Tech-pan. Platinum print.

Alex, Oregon Coast, expired film (somehow the numbers from the backing papers bled onto the film over time.) Silver gelatin print.

A fun camera! Have a great time at the show!

frontdrive34 · Feb 24, 2011

There was a story about the exhibition on the Sunday afternoon ABC arts program last weekend. Might well be online for viewing by now.

Life and Lens of a plastic Princess

Poisson Du Jour

Mick Fagan

Yamaotoko

chriscrawfordphoto

Alex Bishop-Thorpe

Poisson Du Jour

gandolfi

Nicholas Lindan

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nhemann

lapzod

gandolfi

lapzod

Poisson Du Jour

Vaughn

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Life and Lens of a plastic Princess

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