Will there ever be another photographic movement?

[jtk]

Photography has no distinctive characteristics. Its a nonentity. Some folks insist that it's another opportunity for us Vs them. That "schools" are spoken of is antiquarian...nothing more.

 

[Kilgallb]

I have read this entire discussion several times, all posts. I donor understand all this, but I was moved to look elsewhere to find out more. I guess this means the discussion was thought provoking.

The best part was the discussion was temperate and respectful. I think some may have even changed their mind’s.

Bravo, let’s do this more often.

 

[tballphoto]

I would consider lomography a "movement". It doesn't have the endorsement of serious galleries, not unexpected since it is actually a movement in reaction to "serious photography".

lomography isnt a movement, as it has no purpose other then as an excuse to claim bad photos are "good", and that its unique and artistic to use outdated film, film thats been treated with radiation or chemicals to give bizarre effects.

 

[gone]

"Are there any photo movements today?"

There haven't been any movements or new manners of expression in more than half a century. None worth noting anyway. The last movements that changed anything in or out of the art world were the Abstract Expressionist/Pop movements. Those were eons ago, although it seems like yesterday because there was so much new stuff being shown by great artists.

Photography has it's genres: landscape, fine art, portrait, etc, but like the rest of the art world, photography's really big names were working at the same time as the Abstract Expressionists/Pop artists. Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Diane Arbus, the list goes on and on. Many were making fantastic work in the pages of Look, Life, Esquire, etc.

I remember going to a showing of Avedon's large scale B&W portraits at SFMOMA, and it was a sort of celebrity party atmosphere. His big portraits were stunning too. In North Beach, the West Coast Abstract Expressionists were in one gallery, and directly on the other side of the street was a big Warhol showing. Today, that ship has sailed. We just ck things out on our electronic screens and we're content and pacified.

 

[DREW WILEY]

If you need another movement, just get some laxative. That pretty much sums up the whole topic, especially the self-conscious Pop Art movement of the 60's and 70's. It's what they wanted - a purgative of the old order. But now it's the monotonous imperious old order itself. Yesterday's big fad becomes tomorrow's worn-out moldy baggage. Andy Warhol appeals to me just about as much as a Hula Hoop museum.

 

[warden]

If you need another movement, just get some laxative. That pretty much sums up the whole topic, especially the self-conscious Pop Art movement of the 60's and 70's. It's what they wanted - a purgative of the old order. But now it's the monotonous imperious old order itself. Yesterday's big fad becomes tomorrow's worn-out moldy baggage. Andy Warhol appeals to me just about as much as a Hula Hoop museum.

You're full year late to Andrew O'Neill's movement joke on post 19, Drew. And dissin' Andy Warhol is so 1974.

 

[removed account4]

lomography isnt a movement, as it has no purpose other then as an excuse to claim bad photos are "good", and that its unique and artistic to use outdated film, film thats been treated with radiation or chemicals to give bizarre effects.

I don’t think they are a movement but they are as close to one gets .. manifesto and all..
Not to mention LOTS of great photos made with their cameras and lenses
( and they buy/ use a ton of film love to have fun and have great outreach to people who aren’t old white guys with beards

 

[Pieter12]

I don’t think they are a movement but they are as close to one gets .. manifesto and all..
Not to mention LOTS of great photos made with their cameras and lenses
( and they buy/ use a ton of film love to have fun and have great outreach to people who aren’t old white guys with beards

Interesting manifesto, but I wouldn't necessarily attribute it to lomography. I associate lomography as a low-tech, purposely imperfect and maybe naive genre using flawed or pre-manipulated film. Their manifesto could be followed with a digital camera, a Leica M or a Hasselblad, for that matter.
https://www.lomography.com/about/the-ten-golden-rules

 

[tballphoto]

I don’t think they are a movement but they are as close to one gets .. manifesto and all..
Not to mention LOTS of great photos made with their cameras and lenses
( and they buy/ use a ton of film love to have fun and have great outreach to people who aren’t old white guys with beards

Most of the photos in the lomo website, the web gallery and their magazine, are what photography books before 1999 use to illustrate things a person has done WRONG and is to be avoided by LEARNING the basics of photography.

 

[awty]

I don’t think they are a movement but they are as close to one gets .. manifesto and all..
Not to mention LOTS of great photos made with their cameras and lenses
( and they buy/ use a ton of film love to have fun and have great outreach to people who aren’t old white guys with beards

Why isnt there any love for old white guys with beards? They need love to.

 

[MattKing]

Most of the photos in the lomo website, the web gallery and their magazine, are what photography books before 1999 use to illustrate things a person has done WRONG and is to be avoided by LEARNING the basics of photography.

Which in many ways is more of a comment on those books, than the photos.
A 2017 pinhole image with false colour:

 

[awty]

Interesting manifesto, but I wouldn't necessarily attribute it to lomography. I associate lomography as a low-tech, purposely imperfect and maybe naive genre using flawed or pre-manipulated film. Their manifesto could be followed with a digital camera, a Leica M or a Hasselblad, for that matter.
https://www.lomography.com/about/the-ten-golden-rules

You can make good or bad pictures with any camera or lens.
Is a movement based on technique or content? I would of thought it was more about the content, but I dont know art.

 

[awty]

Which in many ways is more of a comment on those books, than the photos.
A 2017 pinhole image with false colour:
View attachment 271772

Did you build a rocket ship!? How cool is that. I take it the tube takes the exhaust flame away.

 

[MattKing]

It is a surge tower for the Stillwater hydroelectric power station in the Powell River area of BC. The pipe to the left is the penstock that supplies/supplied the water.
This power station supplied the electricity to the Powell River pulp mill which, at one time, was the largest in the world.

 

[tballphoto]

You can make good or bad pictures with any camera or lens.
Is a movement based on technique or content? I would of thought it was more about the content, but I dont know art.

awty, the WHOLE lomo movement is nothing more then a movement of self description, and self entitlement with the sole purpose of using fancy art terms as an excuse to have a bad photograph.

Example, you take a still life of a beer bottle on a plate. You used the wrong shutter speed and didnt use a tripod, you have horrid shake in the photo.
in the REAL world, you toss the photo out. its crap.

In the LOMO world, you declare " its a fine art interpretation of alcoholism upon the human condition" and you get to be a featured "artist" in their web magazine.

 

[awty]

awty, the WHOLE lomo movement is nothing more then a movement of self description, and self entitlement with the sole purpose of using fancy art terms as an excuse to have a bad photograph.

Example, you take a still life of a beer bottle on a plate. You used the wrong shutter speed and didnt use a tripod, you have horrid shake in the photo.
in the REAL world, you toss the photo out. its crap.

In the LOMO world, you declare " its a fine art interpretation of alcoholism upon the human condition" and you get to be a featured "artist" in their web magazine.

I have no great concept of art, some pictures I like, most do nothing for me. I go to an art gallery and look at the pictures and if I like them I will read plaque if not I will move on. Don't need anyone telling whats good or bad. How they are made is not as important as what they have to say.
I will be going out this afternoon with my camera bag with Leicas and Holgas and hopefully making a couple of negatives worth working on in the darkroom.

 

[markjwyatt]

I see some interesting images from lomography. It is usually done by someone who appears to understand the limitations of lomography, and creates images specifically suited to those limitations.

 

[removed account4]

Most of the photos in the lomo website, the web gallery and their magazine, are what photography books before 1999 use to illustrate things a person has done WRONG and is to be avoided by LEARNING the basics of photography.

What is your point ?

awty, the WHOLE lomo movement is nothing more then a movement of self description, and self entitlement with the sole purpose of using fancy art terms as an excuse to have a bad photograph.

Example, you take a still life of a beer bottle on a plate. You used the wrong shutter speed and didnt use a tripod, you have horrid shake in the photo.
in the REAL world, you toss the photo out. its crap.

In the LOMO world, you declare " its a fine art interpretation of alcoholism upon the human condition" and you get to be a featured "artist" in their web magazine.

Again what is your point? there really is no such thing as the real world, and perfect photographs are usually really boring and have nothing to say except " im a boring perfect photograph".

Why isnt there any love for old white guys with beards? They need love to.

Sorry yeah I know. LOL HAHAHA

 

[foc]

Poor auld Lomography. The savour of film photography or the whipping post of hipsters haters.
I think there is room for us all no matter what your film flavour is.
Personally, I like Lomography and I visit their galleries often. In fact I think some of their photos are better than what I see here or on other photo galleries.
The processing of their films kept my film processor running for many years.
Not everything they do is to my taste but who cares.
Is it a movement?
I don't know but it will have left its mark on the late 20th and early 21st century. ( that's 30 years on the go)
Not bad for a bunch of (bearded) hipsters.

 

[removed account4]

Poor auld Lomography. The savour of film photography or the whipping post of hipsters haters.
I think there is room for us all no matter what your film flavour is.
Personally, I like Lomography and I visit their galleries often. In fact I think some of their photos are better than what I see here or on other photo galleries.
The processing of their films kept my film processor running for many years.
Not everything they do is to my taste but who cares.
Is it a movement?
I don't know but it will have left its mark on the late 20th and early 21st century. ( that's 30 years on the go)
Not bad for a bunch of (bearded) hipsters.

yup ! couldn't agree more..

I think LOMO users shot/shoot more film than most people. ... stoked they helped keep you afloat

its too bad there are so many haters, and its too bad they always tend to
hide behind pen names and never show any of their own work..

 

[eddie]

It is usually done by someone who appears to understand the limitations of lomography, and creates images specifically suited to those limitations.

Exactly. Those that disparage it don't have the creative vision to exploit the limitations.

 

[DREW WILEY]

The only thing the Lomo trend proves is that aspiring "artistes" are still starving. Maybe they just can't afford anything better. But hope is on the way. Fuji is going to start manufacturing disposable cardboard cameras again, even underwater ones.

 

[warden]

The only thing the Lomo trend proves is that aspiring "artistes" are still starving. Maybe they just can't afford anything better. But hope is on the way. Fuji is going to start manufacturing disposable cardboard cameras again, even underwater ones.

Thanks for that, Drew. This thread was starting to feel uncomfortably welcoming and convivial.

 

[eddie]

The only thing the Lomo trend proves is that aspiring "artistes" are still starving. Maybe they just can't afford anything better.

Utter bullshit.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Exactly. Those that disparage it don't have the creative vision to exploit the limitations.

And then there's those who push those limitations to the maximum, and manage to make things the Lomo folks weren't expecting them to make with their cameras/film. I use a Lomo Belair with all its weirdness to do documentary photography and make 2x4 palladium prints from the negatives. You can accomplish amazing things with their stuff if you don't restrict your vision of what YOU want to accomplish to what others tell you you're supposed to accomplish with any given technique/medium/materials. I love my Belair so much, I went out and got one of the LCA 120 cameras - It gives me a very lightweight, portable, easy-to-shoot super-wide camera that I can travel with. It comes along as a companion to my Rolleiflex. I know that in many respects, a Hassy Superwide would make a better match for the Rollei, but at 4x the price and 5x the weight, I can shoot a LOT of film through that LCA before I'll even touch the Hassy.