Holga

Torino, Italy

The Holga is a medium format camera created in Hong Kong in the early 80s made entirely of plastic and hailed today as an iconic lo-fi camera. The classic Holga 120N has two f stops (f8 and f11), zone focusing with four marked distances, two shutter speeds (1/100 and bulb), and the ability to use 6×4.5cm and 6×6 cm film simultaneously. The camera became hugely popular and by 2001had sold over a million units worldwide.

The original Holga 120S was so cheaply made that the film in the camera would often go slack and had to be kept taut manually by the photographer using the camera’s winding system. The 120N model added foam inside the camera to solve this frustrating problem.
“Everybody has a life. Everybody has a sensibility. Everybody has yearnings. Everybody has a cause to plead. And everybody has a camera”
-Richard Avedon