What is lomography?
Lomography is photography that prioritizes spontaneity and random happenstance over technical perfection. Taken with cheap plastic cameras lomographic images use unpredictable light leaks, strange lens alignments, and irregular film processing techniques.
It’s the stuff of instagram filters before instagram filters with roots in communist Russia. In 1984 the arms and optical factory “Leningradskoye Optiko-Mekhanicheskoye Obyedinenie” (LOMO) produced 1100 cheap plastic LOMO LC-A cameras a month.
In 1991 a group of Viennese students came across the camera and it’s strange effects. It’s popularity spread and the Lomographic Society International was formed the following year in support of lo-fi photography.
What is medium format?
Medium format film is distinguished from the more common and versatile 35mm film with its standardized 24x36mm aspect ratio. Typically referred to as 120mm, medium format film accommodates a range of larger aspect ratios like 6x4.5cm, 6x7cm, and the iconic 6x6cm square format. The film requires a larger camera body to accommodate and is used in many toy camera models.
Though less convenient at times, medium format’s larger size also allows for more detail to be captured on the negative resulting in a higher resolution image quality that is more easily enlarged, with smoother gradations, and a flatter depth of field.