Women of Lomography

8

In light with today's International Women's Day celebration, lomographers speak about the woman they look up to the most and shares their insights on photography as a creative outlet to express and celebrate their individuality.


@katphip

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

There are a lot of women I look up to, it's so hard to limit myself to just one! For instance, there are a lot of really talented, creative women across the world that I'm proud to call my colleagues here at Lomography. I had a lot of amazing women photography teachers along the way, such as Nicole Croy who truly changed my whole life when she introduced me to analog photography and set me free into the darkroom. Julie Pochron was also a huge inspiration in finding my way as a young artist. I have also always been deeply inspired by the fearless creativity exemplified by the life and work of Berenice Abbott. She got her start as the darkroom assistant of Man Ray, but is known in her own right for her prolific career as a photographer, curator, scientist, and inventor. Talk about a renaissance woman!

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

Photography has for a very long time given me a language to express myself and explore the world with a clarity unlike any other. I think that as women, we have a unique sensitivity to the world so this is something that I think about quite a lot in terms of the images that I want to create. Oftentimes the things I'm drawn to photograph are fleeting or intimate moments, whispers of beautiful color and light, and I think that the ability to focus my vision to observe such quiet things is partially due to this special sensitivity. For me it's really powerful to work in a medium that literally allows me to share my visual perspective.


@ehrenreichandrea

Credits: andreasehrenreich

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

I admire many creative women who believe in their work: Coco Chanel, Annie Leibovitz, Zaha Hadid, Iris Apfel, and Kiki Kogelnik.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photographs helps you in expressing yourself?

Lomography allowed me to do photos as I want without any regulations. I can dive in my dreamworld and look at the things around us with a free view. Lomography makes a fun, gives me a carefree feeling and moves me to look more positive about common, everyday problems.


@lafilledeer

Credits: lafilledeer

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

The woman I look up the most is my mom. She is amazing and a model for me.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photographs helps you in expressing yourself?

Photography helps me in expressing myself as a woman and for the women. It gives me a medium to work with a feminist approach, on the female body, for example.


@lorrainehealy

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

My entire life, the woman I have looked up to the most has been the person whom I think of as a grandmother, María Riopedre (1903-1989), my Mom’s Nanny and part of my life since the day I was born. She was born in the mountains of northwestern Spain and spent ten years working in Cuba in the 1920s. She went back to Spain only to leave again (for Argentina this time) before the Spanish Civil War began, and never returned to her native land.

She had a natural elegance and an inborn sense of human dignity that are hard to describe. She remains my touchstone and my moral compass. She loved to sing and was the best storyteller I have ever known, and she loved to take photographs with her Brownie.

María Riopedre in Havanna, Cuba, on the day she turned 28.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

I think photography allows me to express myself, period. Since I happen to be a woman, I imagine that kind of sensibility or worldview comes out in my images. Lomography allows me to widen the range of what I can express as a photographer, both in the different options of equipment and supplies (the Sprocket Rocket and its incorporation of film sprockets, for example, adding to the idea that a photograph goes beyond what we choose to frame; films like Lomo Turquoise encouraging me to look at reality in a different way) and with its ideology of play and experimentation. Lomography reminds me not to take myself or my work too seriously, to see accidents as part of the adventure, and to push my craft beyond what I think I can do.

@amelia37blue

Credits: amelia37blue

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

There are so many women I admire! Doers and makers, painters, photographers, freaks, activists, sisters and mothers, women who find a way to turn their creative pursuits into a career, those are the women I look up to.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

Photography is the most accessible outlet for me during intense creative spikes, which are almost always at their highest during ovulation. Can I say ovulation here? Ovulation! And when that energy coincides with the full moon, time to grab the camera and some dress-up clothes and ride that wave! It's all connected.

I actually bought my first Holga (then Diana F+, then Pentax) when I became a mother, and primarily started using film as a way to photograph my children, while staying engaged and connected with them, without the distraction of digital technology. So, it's the perfect medium to transition to being a mother and a memory keeper at that, like a separate being in need of a creative outlet.


@sanamiii

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

My mum!

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

Lomography is about being creative and experimental. Lomography cameras are incredibly simple to understand which allowed beginners like me to get started in photography. It helped me to show what I see, what I stand for, and the way how I see it


@elegia

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

I was brought up by my Dad, so the female role models in my life have always been my friends and my sister. My sister is the woman that I look up to the most because I just admire her so much for her strength and courage. She's gone through more in her life than most people do in a lifetime, but you would never know it from meeting her. She's the definition of what it is to be a strong woman.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

Photography helps me with expressing myself as a woman in an abundant manner of ways. I've always found it hard to share my feelings with others, and with photography I get to explore what it means to be a woman and the life experiences I've had as a woman. It's allowed me to be fearless, open, vulnerable, and capture sides of me which I don't always feel comfortable showing in real life. I think that photography has allowed so many women to take back the control over how women are portrayed in the arts, and showcase the female gaze it all of its glory. It's a liberating and powerful medium for me.


@eva_eva

Credits: eva_eva

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

My mom. She very cheerful and optimistic. Her carefree personality somehow made me feel that she’s not only my mother but a good friend of mine whom I can share almost everything. Now that I became a mother myself, I appreciate her even more. I’ve realize, being a mother is the world’s most toughest job and my mom, indeed, did a very good job.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

There are always different point of views in our daily life between individuals, genders, race, religions, etc. Photography somewhat made me subconsciously express my inner feelings freely in my photographs.

@mjanekerr

Credits: mjanekerr

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

There are many incredibly inspiring women I look up to, but I remember, when I was a teenager, being really blown way by an image I'd seen of Lee Miller, naked in a bathtub, her boots on the floor beside her, which had seen the horrors of war and of the concentration camp, all of which she had photographed.

She started off as a model, a Surrealist, and a fashion photographer, before becoming the only female combat photographer in Europe during WWII. Post-war, she battled with depression.

I felt amazed and inspired after reading about her extraordinary life and her apparently fearless attitude.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

As the mother of four energetic boys, life can be pretty hectic, and I don't even mean the physical aspect so much as the mental energy required to cope with the demands of parenting, alongside all the other "stuff" that occupies my mind, but I find that photography can fit in pretty well around the kids' schedule, and affords me some much needed "head space".

I'm drawn to Lomography as I love to experiment with different films, cameras and photography techniques. There's something very freeing about trying something new anddifferent without knowing quite how the resulting image will look--the joy of the unexpected! Lee Miller and Man Ray's solarisation images were the result of Lee accidentally switching on the darkroom lights before the images were done developing, then Man Ray decided to place them into the fixer in an effort to salvage something, producing those very stylized images. Many happy accidents are waiting to happen! I recently got around to doing some "film soup", which I'd wanted to do for a while: Two rolls thrown in the wash with the laundry and one in the dishwasher (which I preferred) which made doing the chores much more enjoyable.

As well as the actual photo-taking, a big part of the process, for me, is looking at the images afterwards and seeing what "stories" they tell, or how they make me feel, and then I try to give them a title that in some way reflects that, usually inspired by music. I find it all quite cathartic!


@hannah_brown

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

Probably Trish Keenan, the lead singer from Broadcast. Trish took a really experimental approach to her vocals and was influenced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, public information films, and used a lot of analogue sounds. Trish sadly died a few years ago but the band's legacy lives on and they still have a huge, dedicated fan base who all remember her work with Broadcast very fondly. I was really influenced by her approach to sounds and the visual elements used within the band such as the artwork and videos, all of which were very tactile (Thanks to Julian House for that.) Their work inspired me to follow a more analogue approach to photography and design.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

When I take photos I’m not really conscious of expressing myself as a woman. I’m more interested in following my own creative path. I don’t really shoot people or portraits and enjoy shooting random double exposures and graphic signs and symbols. I generally run around London trying to be as discreet as possible, I’m quite shy so find it difficult to shoot people and portraits. I quite literally “don’t think, just shoot.”


@tzutzuliao

Credits: tzutzuliao

Who's the woman you look up to the most?

Virginia Woolf.

As a woman, how does Lomography/photography help you in expressing yourself?

For me, taking photographs is not only a recording but also a kind of writing of life. I love taking self-portraits because I think that is the real way of having an insight about ourselves. It turns out to be a ceremony of self-awareness. You will start thinking how you can be recorded and how you truly look like to others. This whole process is considered as a way of being a woman and also a way of self-searching.


What about you, our dear reader? Who is the woman you look up to the most? Honor them by sharing their inspiring stories on the comments section below!

2017-03-08 #people #international-women-s-day

8 個留言

  1. sirio174
    sirio174 ·

    GREAT article!

  2. hervinsyah
    hervinsyah ·

    I love Broadcast too <3 Too bad Trish Keenan was passed away =( great inspiration, Miss Hannah Brown =)

  3. argentic-translation
    argentic-translation ·

    I'm happy to read all of you, Mesdames.

    Très bel article.

    Merci :)

  4. mpflawer
    mpflawer ·

    @lafilledeer <3

  5. icequeenubia
    icequeenubia ·

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us @katphip, @ehrenreichandrea, @lafilledeer, @lorrainehealy, @amelia37blue, @sanamiii, @elegia, @eva_eva, @mjanekerr, @hannah_brown, and @tzutzuliao! Happy international women's day!!!

  6. lorrainehealy
    lorrainehealy ·

    thank you, @icequeenubia, for asking me to be part of this awesome company of photographers. Honored indeed, @kathip, @ehrenreichandrea, @lafilledeer, @amelia37blue, @sabamii, @elegia, @eva_eva, @mJanekerr, @hannah_brown, and @tzutzuliao

  7. ehrenreichandrea
    ehrenreichandrea ·

    thank you @icequeenubia,glad about nice article

  8. polaroidlove
    polaroidlove ·

    Thank you, great article!

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