The Lomography Wrap-Up 2022: A Year of Analogue Surprises and 30 Years of Creative Freedom

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With the launch of the LomoApparat, and a couple of new camera editions and film formulas, 2022 has been an eventful year for us at Lomography. On top of these, thousands of photos were uploaded by community members and we've had tons of fun browsing through them, even featuring some here in our online magazine.

As the world opened up even further in 2023, we became part of many events and held many competitions and challenges, all with the goal of spreading the love for analogue, fun and creative experimentation, as we've been doing for 30 years now!

Before we journey on to 2023 let’s look back at some of our major news, milestones and accomplishments in 2022.

Credits: alessiourso, erdalito, dylanoverhouse, jamwonks, mharvey & fhil68

Walking on the Wide Side: Welcoming the LomoApparat & Other New Camera Editions

One of the highlights of our year was definitely the launch of our new 21 mm experimental camera, the LomoApparat, in October. On top of the original black version, we released the Neubau Edition, and both versions of the wide-angle camera are now shipping worldwide. Have you got yours yet?

Credits: lomography, rocket_fries0036, edwinchau, melissaperitore & zphil

In May 2022, we launched an aluminium silver variant of the Daguerreotype Achromat 2.9/64 Art Lens with Canon EF mount, and it's also available for mirrorless cameras using adapters. We can’t wait to see more of the community’s dreamy images taken using this art lens!

Meanwhile, blazing August was abuzz with the La Sardina & Fisheye No.2 acapulco editions, launched during the last leg of our Easy Analogue campaign which ran from mid-June to August.

Credits: periduht, navoski, chumq, galagac & charlie_cat

And in late September, we welcomed the Lomo’Instant Automat Glass Serengeti and Lomo’Instant Wide Camera & Lenses Monte Carlo editions. Boosting other film formats, we also reintroduced the Fisheye Baby 110 in early October in two editions, Metal Black and the colorful Bauhaus. You may ask, why 110?

Young film shutterbug Anna Shotadze (@annashotadze) says its best in one of our Dear Young Shutterbugs interviews: "I really do think that the best photos come from the moments of spontaneity, and tiny 110 film cameras can help you with that!"

Meanwhile, after the launch of the LomoApparat, we unveiled our Lomo'Instant Automat collaboration with Hong Kong artist, Vivian Ho in October. We also did an interview with her on her artistic inspirations, being an artist in Hong Kong and more.

Credits: shogen, chumq, lomobang, makethisadouble, epcphoto, gendis & jmcedo

Keep Calm and Lomo On!

2022 has been an especially big year for Lomography as we turned 30! We kickstarted our celebration with the 30 Reasons for Analogue survey. We wanted to know, why do YOU shoot film? In line with this milestone, we launched 30th Anniversary limited editions of the Lomo LC-A family, which includes the Lomo LC-A+, Lomo LC-Wide and Lomo LC-A 120 in handcrafted leather designs. Sleek and sentimental!

Painting the Metro Turquoise: New Film Formulas

In terms of film releases and announcements, we finally got the release of the much-awaited 2021 LomoChrome Turquoise ISO 100–400. The pre-orders started last year but most Lomographers started shooting this sought-after film stock this year. We also got to see the 2021 formula of the LomoChrome Metropolis medium format version which was a great film stock to see with more detail.

Credits: evansabahnurd, edwinchau, dede_dos, mademoiselle_olivia, painkiller1990, corto_maltese & hid_hash

Connecting with the Community: Major Contests, Events & Collaborations

With lockdown restrictions relaxed in many parts of the world, the past year was also jam-packed with events we are grateful to have been a part of. To start the year, we teamed up with photographer and Darkslide Film Lab owner Emily Swift to host a Studio Portrait Workshop with creative Lomography 120 films.

Throughout the year, we also hosted LomoWalks across the United States in cities such as Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Chicago and Toronto. In Manchester, UK, we also held a La Sardina Lomowalk in tandem with The Modernist.

We also joined several workshops this year such as the La Sardina workshop during the London Design Festival, and Penumbra Foundation Diana F+ workshop in collaboration with the New York Public Library. It was taught by Penumbra Foundation instructor Sam Dole as part of the foundation's High School Darkroom Workshop.

We also had fun conducting challenges and engaging Lomographers across the world through activities such as the Film Swap challenge and the Golden Rules Challenge. Thank you for everyone who participated and we hope to see your photos again in 2023!

Credits: zekiphone, hereiscloudland, corinne-camiade & gaz

In France, we called on film shutterbugs to submit their photos of the Opéra Comique during our collaboration with Opéra comique and Wipplay. We also featured the works of artists Laura Ma, Matthieu Quatravaux, Angéline Moizard, Nicolas Southon and Marie Le Moigne on the theme.

We collaborated with the Italian Institute of Photography for the Creatività Consapevole exhibit which featured the works of ten students with the Diana F+ cameras and Color Negative 120 400 ISO film.

It was a pretty active year for 110, and to show some 110 love, Lomography Japan conducted the Pocket 110 Exhibition from July to August featuring the works of six film photographers.

Credits: benedettafalugi, acehz, vivdonner, itaty, marmotine, leblah & brettallensmith

Meanwhile, we also resumed regular competitions this year such as the extra exciting LomoMission which saw thousands of submissions from our community members. Some missions that got the most traction were our Summer Memories with 3,201 submissions, Less is More with 2,530 submissions, Stories of Women with 2,046 submissions and Life As It Happens with 2,036 submissions.

The annual TEN AND ONE Annual Lomography Photo Awards also gained an outstanding number of participants, lead again by the Monochrome category with 14,079 submissions, followed by Street Photography (11,822 Submissions), Portraiture (11,629 Submissions), Nature (10,628 submissions), and Documentary & Travel (8,319 Submissions).

Congratulations to the winners! We have more missions and award categories for the community this year so stay tuned!

The Stories Behind the Storytellers: Lomography Online Magazine

This year the magazine staff shared over 500 stories from Lomographers coming from all walks of life. We were able to get our stories across to different countries by translating them into Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Turkish, French, Thai, Korean, and German! With all these articles we got to look into all kinds of people who are into photography and how it transforms their lives. We showcased communities, individuals, places, tips, and everything in between!

We met Jeremy Grier and learned how he wants to preserve his community and reconnect with his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut, a place where documentation is non-existent. We journeyed up north to Norway to meet Helena Costa, a veterinarian showcasing her secluded area to the world. We saw how nightlife reopened around the world with pictures and stories from the community. We also had an in-depth look at the hypersexualization of female bodies and nudity opening up an important discussion in our community.

Among the hundreds of articles that were put out this year, these were the top reads of 2022.

Credits: leanlui, wasitapril & ansen

We also got the chance to platform the voices of many photographers through different interviews. From talking about growing up as queer photographer to family bonding through film to documenting your coming of age through photography, there are many stories from this year that you can continue to revisit to find inspiration, encouragement, and ideas.

Here are the top interviews for this year of 2022:

Lomography Pioneers

Credits: stouf, wil6ka, lorrainehealy, ccwu, adi_totp & neja

The Lomography Pioneers series is a love letter to those who shaped and made a huge impact on the earlier days of the Lomography community. This year we continued to honor and share the stories, techniques and words of wisdom from some of the most influential and creative Lomographers over the past decade. These longtime contributors and friends are still churning out beautiful images and doing their own thing. This year we talked to the likes of world storyteller Herr Willie, and caught up with Lawypop after a long hiatus from the community.

Take a look at the rest of the features and get to know the people who built the community.

Dear Young Shutterbugs

Credits: annashotadze, klawe, waggrad00, stereograph & jess_spd_

Dear Young Shutterbugs is a new series that we started this year where we asked seasoned film photographers to write a letter to a young film shutterbug. In this series, they talk about their photography experiences, as well as give pieces of advice that they wish they knew when they started out with photography. We’ve had letters from different members of the community such as longtime Lomographer @eva_eva who repeats one of Lomography’s 10 Golden Rules “Don’t Think Just Shoot. This ongoing series will continue to inspire any film enthusiast seeking to create a deeper connection to their craft.

Check out the rest of the letters from the series here.

Making A Moment

Credits: tinmaneyes, amp_puttipong, ruido & robertofiuza

In one of our new series, Making a Moment, we’re asking photographers to share one of their favorite photos that they’ve taken. We want to know the story behind the final image and everything that went into making it. Here are the stories we've featured so far:

We also resumed some of our Online Magazine regular series such as Lomopedia and Around the World in Analogue. And of course, we keep the spirit of experimentation alive through tipsters on alternative developing techniques and printing processes, and more!

Champions of Film: The Lomography Hall of Fame 2022

Lomography is nothing without the thousands of community members contributing and sharing their creativity with us. For this year of 2022, we thank everyone who has uploaded a photo, shared their thoughts on the comments and Shoutbox, and taken the time to browse through the photos. This year, we saw that Moscow was the most photographed city with over 6000 photos taken, followed by St Petersberg, Paris, Berlin, and Hong Kong. The Lomo LC-A+ and LomoChrome Purple are the most popular Lomography products for the year while other cameras such as the Canon AE-1 and Nikon FM2, and film stocks such as Kodak Gold and Kodak Color Plus are being used a lot this year as well.

Credits: edwi_na, oukrid, aciano, zekiphone & c-fischer

This year we also had an abundance of new LomoHomes to look at. Below are the top 10 new Lomographers who joined and shared their wonderful photos with the rest of the community.

Credits: mackiechartres, empty_coast_ghost, northernsceneinsouthernlight, kiirusha95 & duolanga

Again we'd like to thank everyone who has contributed and shared their photos with the whole community this year. We would also like to introduce our most active Lomographers for this year. We continue to be amazed by their work and we thank them for continuing to keep us inspired and to stay creative.

You can always contribute to Lomography through our #lomography and #heylomography on Instagram. We saw thousands of photos this year through these hashtags and here are the top 5 photos from our Lomographers on Instagram.

photos by @verdeonfilm, @kelseysmithphotography, @zkumekuphoto, @johniroadrunner, @melanie_hc

Lastly, we'd like to showcase the top Best Community Photos of 2022! These were some of the most loved photos chosen by the community.

Credits: frenchyfyl, n_u_m_b_f_a_c_e, rik041, stereograph, bcpleung, ohhh__ze & dr_reineke

We’re beyond grateful to our community! From those who ventured into the film photography world through Lomography, or discovered a new film format or formula through us, to those who took part in our contests, events and magazine interviews, and actively joined conversations and uploaded their own photos in their LomoHomes to share with the rest of the community. Thank you from the depths of our Lomo hearts.

We wish everyone a happy new year! We can’t wait to see what 2023 has to offer, for Lomography and for the whole of analogue photography!

written by sylvann on 2022-12-30 #gear #culture #news #people #places #lomography #wrap-up #2022

13 Comments

  1. chubbyshoot
    chubbyshoot ·

    @SYLVANN Thank you for this Lomography community.

    I will empower everyone with my inspiration for taking film photos. Let's take your camera out, find some shots, develop them, and exchange our vision.

    Happy New Year 2023, from us. @chubbyshoot

  2. northernsceneinsouthernlight
    northernsceneinsouthernlight ·

    @SYLVANN -- Thank you first for this retrospective. On a larger scale, would like to thank you and the Lomo Community for welcoming me, taking some time to look and comment on my work, and for the support. There is a tremendous wealth of vision, talent, and unique perspectives here. I truly have enjoyed what I found, what I have seen, and the interactions I have had. I am better for it, so thank you and thank everyone here. Great to be a small part of something so special. Best to all, have a Happy and Safe New Year. Looking forward to what everyone has to share in 2023!

  3. astonuts
    astonuts ·

    Thank you for quoting me in this retrospective, it gives a boost to do more and better !

  4. frenchyfyl
    frenchyfyl ·

    Thanks a lot for quoting me, @lomography! Happy new year!

  5. n_u_m_b_f_a_c_e
    n_u_m_b_f_a_c_e ·

    Thank you so much, @lomography for creating this wonderful community!
    Happy New Year!

  6. waggrad00
    waggrad00 ·

    These are incredible!! Thank you so much for including me. Happy New Year!!

  7. empty_coast_ghost
    empty_coast_ghost ·

    I just want to say thank you to everyone who has taken time to like and comment on my images. I really like having a community like Lomography to share with. Hope everyone continues to get out there and capture the world around you.

  8. sylvann
    sylvann ·

    Many thanks, @chubbyshoot @northernsceneinsouthernlight @astonuts @frenchyfyl @n_u_m_b_f_a_c_e @andikapurwatama @waggrad00 @empty_coast_ghost for the kind words! 😊 It's been such a pleasure deep-diving into the film community and I'm very excited to get to know more about your works this year, cheers to 2022 and to more wonderful analogue moments! <3

  9. sylvann
    sylvann ·

    Article co-written with the amazing @ROCKET_FRIES0036! 🥳

  10. oukrid
    oukrid ·

    Thank you ! Best analog wishes for 2023 ! 🙂📷🎊

  11. sylvann
    sylvann ·

    Have an amazing year ahead @oukrid !

  12. papa-attila
    papa-attila ·

    Greetings and Congratulations to everyone ,not least to the autor ofthe article.

  13. sylvann
    sylvann ·

    Warm greetings, @papa-attila ! Have a wonderful year ahead! :)

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