Lomo Workshop

We are a group of students of the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg, Austria, and we have centered our final project (http://einausblick.at) around teaching the teenagers about various ways of creating art and media in our workshops. One of these ways included a photography workshop. We are very happy that „Lomography“ was enthusiastic of our project and supported us with 10 of their cameras, lots of camera films and a smartphone-scanner.

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The Kids were very open and outgoing, so after only a short period of time, we could get started with our Lomography-Workshop. Because we knew most of the kids mainly from the skatepark, we were very interested in their everyday life outside of it. So we came up with the idea of letting them ban 24 hours of their life on 36 photographs. The cameras fitted the job perfectly, because the teens could focus on their creative flow and didn’t have to worry about technical adjustments. It was our goal to show them the fun and excitement of photography and learn about their individual view of the world.

After we had informed the kids about our plans, they were enthusiastic. We made a list of all the participants, in order to provide every one of them with his own camera. At the time, we were not allowed to use the class rooms near the skate park, so we held the workshop in the „cancha“, the roofed soccer field next to the park. That week, the two volunteers Marco and Miriam arrived and joined up with us. We immediately got along nicely and they were a great support in organizing and documenting the workshop. After we gave out the cameras by draw of lots, we showed the kids some examples of Lomo pictures and inserted the films together. Then we explained the cameras to them and gave them some tips how to achieve good results.

They were all very ambitious and couldn’t wait to get started. Of course, at the beginning, lots of photos were taken at the skate park documenting their favorite occupation. Right their we answered a few questions about the cameras, that came up and gave them a few more tips. 24 hours later we all met up at the skate park again to collect the cameras. To our big surprise, all the kids showed up on time, despite very heavy rain! They were already awaiting us to give back the cameras with full films. We knew moste of the children only shortly and some of them were unknown to us until the workshop, so we weren’t that sure, if we would get all the cameras back, but this moment built our trust in the kids. We met happy faces and ambitious kids, that couldn’t wait to tell us about their best shots and results.

Upon request, a photography store located in San Isidro was willing to give us a discount on developing the films – we were very happy about the support! The kids took a lot of stunning photos, that let us have a insight into the kids’ everyday life and stories. Of course, a lot of shots were taken at the skate park, for it is a very important part of their life. We presented the photographs at the last reunion in the class rooms next to the skate park, together with the results of the other workshops and gave a selection of photos and a portrait to every workshop participant.

Before we travelled back home, we donated the cameras, the left-over films and the scanner to the project for future workshops.

We would like to say a big thank you to Lomography for their generous donation, support and therefore the possibility to really hand the tools for creative output over to the kids.