Diana World Tour
No Vacancy Gallery
February 25 – March 11
It’s an appropriate setting for a photography exhibition so saturated in cool. Wedged into the side of the QV building in a corridor of concrete and shadows, the No Vacancy Gallery is known as a haven of cutting edge curiosities in the middle of the CBD. No wonder this mini-warehouse is playing host to the world’s most anticipated mobile collection of lomography: The Diana World Tour.
For the old and uninitiated, lomography is experimental analogue photography taken by an elite fleet of plastic cameras. It’s all about ‘happy accidents’: blurry edges, over-saturation of colour, weird lighting phenomena – and many of the Lomo cameras are geared solely to create these effects. Governed by the now famous 10 Golden Rules these cameras have even spawned their own creative movement, characterised by a ‘Don’t think, just shoot’ philosophy (and the excessive use of exclamation marks.)
The princess of the lomography family is, of course, Diana. Manufactured and almost immediately discontinued by a plastics factory in Hong Kong during the 70’s, the Diana camera produces a racy mix of high colour, and hazy images. Lomography’s aggressive marketing campaign means that original Dianas are about as easy to come by as original Women’s Weekly Birthday Cakes books. Hence the cunning creation of the Diana F+ in 2007 – a smashing replica with add-ons like the pinhole and ‘endless panorama’ effects.
As Diana-toters will gush before you actually ask them, these cameras aren’t just about cute photos. As the Lomography marketing department put it: “To hold, point, and shoot a Diana camera implies a conscious decision to relinquish control.” That might be taking it a bit far. But either way the results are pretty cool.
The Diana World tour has just hit No Vacancy and consists of Mr Allan Detrich’s startling collection of original and replica Dianas, the Diana Vignette Collection of dreamy mounted images by lomographers from around the world, and the all important pop-up shop. Perch on one of NV’s sanded wooden crates to admire the impressive array of prototypes, as well as the ‘customised clones’ that have been re-imagined by artists including Ghostpatrol, Cat-Rabbit, DJ duo Dan Gosling and Marky Hill (re-imagining involves attaching things like bunny ears, robot hands and wiry tri-pod legs to cameras, in case you weren’t sure). All for a good cause of course: the 25 one-offs will be auctioned online to raise money for charities www.seethroughme.com.au and World Child Cancer.
If you’re skint but still excited about all this, fork out a 20 for a Diana workshop where you can learn some extra Golden Rules to apply to your mad lomo skills.
