It all started in London back in 2008 visiting Urban Outfitters in Oxford Street. This strange, plastic camera using medium format film. On the other hand, I had two professional DSLR-cameras. Although I bought it, and never looked back and now I have three of them. I love Holga photography!
I started using my new Holga 120 CFN straight away – shooting a few frames for testing only. The next morning we went to Notting Hill for some shopping and my Holga was with me all the time. Unfortunately I only had one roll of film, and just a couple of images from this trip, but it was the start of a long journey and adventure.
For the first year I had my Holga with me on every travel and several assignments and photo jobs. A roadtrip to USA during the summer, used it during the weekends and even brought it to Madagascar during the fall.
I started shooting with my Holga the first day and I think I shot at least one picture every day of my weeklong stay in Madagascar. Afterwards I truly regret using black and white film. Don´t get me wront – I love black and white photography, but I miss the colours in some of them, especially some shot in the rainforest of Ranomafana.
Holga roadtrip
On the other hand, I had great success with shooting in black and white during a roadtrip in USA just a few months earlier. We went from San Francisco and down to Los Angeles and then in to the desert and Las Vegas. We drove a part of the old Route 66 through the Mojave desert and saw the famous Roy´s Motel & Café sign in Amboy, California.
During the three weeks I shot two rolls of film. I became more and more in love with my Holga, and until 2010 I used the camera regularly.
So, why do we love Holga photography?
Working as a photographer since 2000 I became more and more concerned about the techs and specs on camera equipment. How many pixels, how many frames per second or how sharp will this lens be? For me Holga photography is like going back to the roots. The naked, raw truths about photography and what is visually appealing. I have to admit – I love the lo-fi, blurry and technically unperfect photographs. It has something to do with a picture telling a story, or showing the world in a natural way.
For me it doesn´t matter if there are some light leaks, the main object is out of focus or you just forgot to turn the shutter to N instead of B. B means ´bulb´and the exposure ends when you want it to. Not to mention the vignetting on the pictures. And finally waiting for the film to be developed and you can finally see the results.
Of course a lot of pictures are just crap, but you might find some gold in between the useless images.