Lomography Goes to Kindergarten

We recently embarked on an unusual and wonderful project when we sent some Lomography cameras and rolls of film to Kiwi-Hort and Kindergarten Hietzing, Vienna as creative educational tools for the kids to use. It’s not often we see our cameras in such small hands, and we were excited to see what the children would capture. ​​Aged between 5 - 10 years old, the children documented class trips around the city and we were blown away by the astonishing scenes they photographed under the guidance of their teachers Judit Szalma and Eva Luna Farina. Below, Judit tells us all about the project and shares her insights with us.

Children and analogue photography? Black and white photos in kindergarten? It may sound peculiar, but we accepted the challenge and the results exceeded our expectations. My colleague Eva Luna Farina and I started a literature project a few months ago, and it was evident from the beginning that we needed to include media education.

The children - between the ages of 5 and 10 – have shown not only a great interest in photography, films and various (photo) applications on mobile phones, but also expertise in the world of technology. The use of technology could be combined very creatively with the pre-planned topics, but the spontaneous drive of the project took us often in new directions.

Thanks to Lomography's support, the exciting world of analogue photography opened up to us. It's becoming more popular nowadays, but for the younger generations, which grow up in the digital age, it also offers a whole new aesthetic and technical experience. The limited number of photos means new challenges for the children, because they have to choose their motifs for the photos in a more specific and focused way than they are used to with their mobile phones. Despite the differences, there are also similarities between analogue and digital technologies. For example, the spontaneous act of taking pictures: if something funny or unusual happens on the street, one can take numerous photos in a few seconds with a mobile phone. “Don’t think, just shoot” so goes the Lomography’s philosophy.

Similarities and differences have been mentioned, but let's go one step further! We saw during our projects that photographing with analogue cameras combines spontaneous shooting with focused search for motifs and the surprise effect increases through the longer waiting process for the film developing.

On our trips, mainly in Hietzing (Schönbrunn and Palmenhaus, Donaukanal), we took photos with several Lomo cameras, which made different aesthetic and visual results possible. In this way, we took multi-exposure or “splitzer” photos with a LomoApparat, while the Vienna streetscape showed up as “curved and rounded” through a fisheye lens. The children could take beautiful, properly exposed and focused photos thanks to the simple use of the Lomo LC-A+ camera.. Our love of experimentation also unfolded as we tried out Lomo Films like LomoChrome Purple, Lomography Color Negative 400, Lady Gray B&W 400 and Lomography Redscale XR.

From the children's perspective, the most fascinating fact about analogue photography is that they can't see the results immediately compared to their cell phones and digital cameras with displays, and the images even show a very different picture of the environment they know. From a pedagogical point of view, it was our main intention to find out which motives capture the interest of our children.

Beyond the variety of subjects (such as elements of the street scene or nature, people on the street or other children from the group, animals, etc.), the photos also have interesting characteristics from a technical point of view. The children often took close-up pictures of small objects on the ground or ornaments on buildings, which are overlooked by adults. For example, on the close up-photo of a church without its tower, the focus is automatically on the street scene and the lively walking in Hietzing.

Last but not least, unknown people on the street are natural when they are photographed by young motivated photographers. It makes it possible to catch a particular moment of everyday life and save it for the future in this eternal form. We couldn’t have wished for more.

Thank you to Judit for her words and the children of Kiwi-Hort and Kindergarten Hietzing for their wonderful photos!

written by alexgray on 2023-08-04 #gear #culture #school #kindergarten #community #lomo-lc-a #color-negative-400 #lady-grey #lomochrome-purple #lomoapparat