Lomography

Lomography is a commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, which their creators associate to a photographic image style and an analog camera movement and community facilitated by The Lomographic Society International.

The Lomographic Society International was founded in 1992 by a group of Viennese students after they discovered the LCA, a camera created by LOMO PLC of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Lomography started as an art movement through which the students put on exhibitions of photos within Vienna; the art movement then developed into a commercial enterprise. Since 1995, Lomography has been the sole distributor of the LC-A camera outside the former Soviet Union, and has moved into producing their own range of analog cameras, films and accessories.

The lomography name is inspired by the former state-run optics manufacturer LOMO PLC of Saint Petersburg, Russia that created and produced the 35 mm LOMO LC-A Compact Automat camera, now central to lomography. This camera was loosely based upon the Cosina CX-1 and introduced in the early 1980s.

Lomography also represents the commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, an Austrian company that produces cameras and accessories. The society is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

In 1991, a group of Viennese students discovered the LOMO LC-A and were inspired by its "unique, colorful, and sometimes blurry" images. The Lomographic Society International was subsequently founded in 1992. After a series of art exhibitions culminating in shows in New York City and Moscow, Lomography signed an exclusive distribution agreement with LOMO PLC in 1995 — becoming the sole distributor of all LOMO LC-A cameras outside of the former Soviet Union. The new company reached an agreement with the deputy mayor of St Petersburg, the future Russian Prime Minister and President, Vladimir Putin, to receive a tax break in order to keep the LOMO factory in the city open.

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