The World According To Rags

Holgas, Lomography & Delayed Gratification

I recently bought a Holga.  Holgas take medium-format film.  Also, they are made of plastic.  Nothing digital about them.  The idea of Holga and Lomograpy, the movement 'behind it', is to bring back the warmth and unpredictability of analogue and 'alternative' film processing - that's my interpretation of it anyway.  The wikipedia entry for Lomography sums it up thusly: "Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, "happy accidents," and alternative film processing are often considered part of the "Lomographic Technique."^{[citation needed]} Users are encouraged to take a lighthearted approach to their photography, and use these techniques to document everyday life, as the Lomo LC-A's small size, simple controls, and ability to shoot in low light encourages candid photography, photo reportage, and photo vérité through the much-touted "10 Golden Rules."^[2]

Holgas and other Lomo cameras are notoriously 'finicky'.  They emphasize experimentation and also being open to unexpected results (or to your entire roll being garbage).  It was with this in mind that I snapped a few rolls with my newly-purchased Holga during a trip to the US in the fall.  Sure enough, much of it was garbage but I really liked how some of the images came out, especially the 'vignette' look that Holgas are known for:

I also really liked the 'delayed gratification' in having to wait for the film to be developed before seeing the outcome:  These days, we're so used to seeing immediate results from photography and other aspects of our lives that the opposite can be frustrating.  But there was an excitement and anticipation built up from having to physically take the rolls to a shop for processing and then returning to get the envelopes containing the prints, which I opened with glee.

I think 'delayed gratification' will continue to be a contrarian trend in other spheres.  In fact, the Slow Food movement could be considered part of this.

Secret Cinema: A New Kind Of Movie-going Experience

I went to Secret Cinema's June performance a couple of weeks back.  Secret Cinema is a group that organize movie-going "events" about once a month for just about a week at a time.  The concept is that the location of the film is kept secret until just before you go. While they drop hints about the film, you don't know what it is until you get there.  For this one, we were told there would be a travel theme and to show up in Canary Wharf at a certain time and with certain type of clothing on including goggles and umbrellas.  It was quite a sight to see fellow travelers amongst the suits of Canary Wharf!

We were then whisked away to the location and, soon, it became apparent that the film was Blade Runner.  They absolutely nailed it.  From the policemen conducting random interviews to the warehouse that recreated various scenes and set from the movie to the actors acting some scenes out, we were blown away by the attention to detail and the overall experience.  After a couple of hours of taking it all in, we were ushered into the screening of the film and recognized many things in the movie that we had just 'seen'.  

While tickets, at about 25 pounds a pop, were a bit more than double the cost of a normal ticket, it was great value for one of the coolest art/performance/experiences I've seen.  It's no surprise that they sold out all their dates and represented about the 11th largest grossing movie in the UK (albeit during a down season).  Below is the official video.

It's great to see innovation happening to something as mundane as going to a movie - clearly consumers are looking for and willing to pay for 'experiences'.  While Secret Cinema will be hard to scale, it is also impossible to substitute digitally, and I hope they keep up the good work.

On Being A 'Casual Vegetarian'

Those that know me know that, over the past year or so, I've drastically cut down my meat consumption and have felt the benefits.  I've called it being a "casual vegetarian", to the amusement of some friends.  I don't see why vegetarianism need be a binary thing - as with most things in life - and so I was interested to see this Ted Talks clip of Graham Hill (founder of Tree Hugger) on being a weekday vegetarian. 

He articulates the ethical, environmental and health reasons to go vegetarian quite eloquently and, instead of giving all meat up, encourages people to reduce meat intake to 2 days a week (if that).   This resonated with me:  I've found that I don't miss the everyday helpings of meat that were a regular part of my diet - the ham sandwiches, the chicken caesar salads - especially given the vegetarian and fish options that are usually at hand.  Instead of restricting meat consumption to the weekends, I tend to eat meat in 'special' circumstances - when I'm traveling and I want to sample the local cuisine, at a nice restaurant or a friend's house for dinner - and I enjoy it.  Maybe I'll go full veg one day but, for now, being a 'causal veg' works for me (and many others I know as well).

The RCA Secret Show

The Royal College of Art in London holds, literally and figuratively, one of the more creative fundraisers I've come across.  It's called the RCS Secret Show.  They get artists to contribute postcards that they sign on the back, each of which get sold for a flat 40 pounds.  People can register as buyers.  The postcards are available to view in-person or online for a week before the buying day and, per the title of the show, the name of the artist for a given postcard is kept secret until the buyer has it in hand and literally turns the card over.  Contributing artists span the spectrum from a few world-famous artists to unknown students and, as you can imagine, the work of some famous names can command quite a premium.  This year they had about 2,700 postcards from a little over a thousand artists.  The most famous 'names' this year included Gerhard Richter, Tracey Emin, Paul Smith and Manolo Blahnik. 

It's first come, first served unless you're one of the 50 lucky lottery winners (out of 9000 total raffle entries) who get to enter first.  So the diehards end up camping outside the RCA for up to a few days beforehand.  I showed up at around 7:30 am (very ambitious for me on a Saturday!) and the queue was very long by then.  Alas, after 3 and a half hours of waiting, I was just getting to the building entrance where I faced another 40 minute wait, which posed a dilemma: I'd queued so long in the cold but yet I also had to leave to make it to a football (soccer) commitment.  In the event, I couldn't let my teammates down and so, grudginly, left the line.  I came back around 2:30 pm and, not surprisingly, most of the artwork was gone.  I was one of the last people to buy and bought a couple works that were left.  I'm not sure they do it for me yet but I was glad to support a good cause as the proceeds go to fund the RCA and its students.

Casino Night Next Friday In NYC

If you're in NYC next Friday, the 16th and looking for something fun and charitable to do, sign up for Casino Night to benefit the David Dawes Nee II Foundation.  It should be a blast to benefit a great cause and I'm looking forward to it, even though I'm terrible at games of chance.