ATI to be Lomography’s sole local distributor

By Bjorn Biel M. Beltran
Special Features Writer

IN A BID to develop the local analogue and experimental photography scene, Vienna-based alternative photography company Lomography announced that retail and business solutions firm Altitude Technologies Inc. (ATI) will become the brand’s sole official distributor in the Philippines.

In launching “The Future is Analogue” campaign on Aug. 2, the company announced that the partnership will allow Lomography products to be more accessible to local artists and retailers. The catalogue includes analogue and instant cameras like the Lomo Instant and Lomo LC-A+; signature films like the Color Negative series and LomoChrome Purple; and lenses, such as the recently released 55mm mirrorless Petzval Art lens.

Edgar Allan Alberto, general manager of Lomography Manila, told ����ý that the deal with ATI will also seek to develop Lomography’s already-burgeoning community here in the Philippines through workshops and projects like “LomoWalks,” “LomoWalls,” and its “LomoAmigo” program, which features local Lomographers in the company’s official online magazine.

Established in 1992 by a group of Viennese students, the Lomographic Society International is a film photography movement that grew from the Lomo LC-A — a popular Russian camera in the 1980s.

The movement eventually developed into an international enterprise with over a million creative members, with the term “Lomography” becoming a commercial trademark of photography firm Lomographische AG. The company also has offices in countries like Hong Kong and Japan.

From what started as an online community on websites like Yahoo! in the early 2000s, the Manila Lomographic Society now boasts of an estimated 17,000 members. Mr. Alberto said throughout its history, much of Lomography’s growth has been organic attributable to word-of-mouth recommendations from film hobbyists and enthusiasts.

“We’d like to keep our growth organic,” he said. “We want our marketing to focus more on how our customers react to our products, projects, and events. We won’t shy away from advertisements, but not too much. Since we have a distributor now, Lomography will be widely available for retailers and ultimately for artists,” Mr. Alberto said.

“Lomography has actually always been here, except that it’s always been underground,” Maria Michaela Villareal, ATI’s brand manager for Lomography, said in an interview.

“We want to create this kind of Lomo culture where you can have fun with film, that you don’t necessarily have to be professional. The vision is for Lomography to be known. We feel like it has already created a strong community that created this love of film, analogue and instant cameras, and it still embodies that whole vintage feel.”

Moving forward, Mr. Alberto said that by making their products more accessible to local photographers, he hopes that the ideals and values of Lomography can help keep the film photography scene in the Philippines alive and thriving in the digital age.

“What you miss from shooting digital photos, you can take with film,” he said.

He added, “Our philosophy is very demographic. We don’t follow any norms. For professional photography standards, these are all mistakes for them. But for Lomographers, these are works of art. These are their lives, these mistakes are part of their memories. It’s something that people are passionate about. More than taking pictures, Lomography is a philosophy.”