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Today’s younger generation is truly a product of the digital age.

Instead of sending letters, they exchange e-mails. They let their friends know about their whereabouts via Facebook and Twitter. They don’t keep a diary anymore, but regularly update their blogs. They listen to music on iPods and have never held a vinyl in their hands. And, they have digital cameras with which they can easily take photos anywhere and anytime. If they don’t like the instant result, they just delete the shot and try again until they’re satisfied.

But even though analog photography seems to be nothing more than a remnant of a disappearing era, there is a devoted group of people who remain faithful to this dying art.

Their special form of photography, known as lomography, started in the early 1990s in Europe. It has found many followers worldwide, including in Indonesia.

“What I like most about lomography is the freedom that it gives me,” said Amanda Syarfuan, co-founder of the Lomographic Society Indonesia. “I like the lomographer’s philosophy of not taking rules too seriously.”

Lomography, defined as casual snapshot photography, is all about fun. Photos are shot from impossible angles, in impossible situations at any given moment.

It is not about taking the perfect photo. More often than not, lomographs are blurry or unfocused. Lomographers are of the belief that a staged photo destroys creativity. They prefer the spontaneous and innovative approach of lomography, with authentic and refreshing results.

Amanda first heard about lomography in 2000, from an aunt who worked at an advertising firm. She acquired her first camera one year later while studying in Australia.

When Amanda came back to Jakarta in 2004, she and some friends already familiar with lomography got together and decided to establish a community for Indonesian lomographers.

“Later, in 2006, we created a Web site where people could order the cameras and films,” Amanda said. “And after we saved up enough money, we opened the store.”

Located on a busy street in Mayestik, South Jakarta, the Lomography Embassy Store is a colorful little shop that offers everything a practitioner of the art desires: cameras, photo equipment, books, gadgets and stationery. It is the only store of its kind in Jakarta, even though lomography has already attracted many followers beyond the capital’s borders.

“Lomography has already spread throughout Indonesia,” Teguh Haryo, co-owner of the store, said. “We have representatives of our community in eight cities. The headquarters is in Jakarta, and then there is Bandung, Yogyakarta, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya, Bali and Pontianak.”

The Lomographic Society Indonesia currently has about 5,000 members, Amanda said, but was quick to add that she was sure there were more people in the country using the technique.

“We have gatherings once or twice a month and there are always new people coming,” she said. “We go photo hunting together, and we talk about tips and tricks of lomography, our different preferences for films.”

They also organize competitions and exhibitions. Currently, Amanda and Teguh are setting up a new exhibition scheduled to be held at Grand Indonesia Mall in February.

“Lomography exhibitions usually come in form of lomo walls,” Amanda said.

“A lomo wall is basically a collage that is made out of dozens of multiple photo prints taken with a lomo camera. We don’t show them one by one.”

The Indonesian lomography community is linked to the Lomographic Society International, which has its headquarters in Vienna, where the art was born.

It was early in 1991 when a group of students from Vienna discovered a small Russian camera, the Lomo Kompakt Automat, while they were taking a stroll through Prague.

This camera had initially been developed a decade earlier by the Soviets as a cheap mass product for the Russian market, but was already phased out at the time. The Austrian students fell in love with the camera, brought it back home with them and started a trend.

The international group was founded one year later and is a growing community with more than 500,000 members worldwide and more than 60 so-called “Lomo Embassies” in over 30 countries.

Lomographers use special cameras that create saturated shots, with shadowy vignetting and radiant, vibrant colors.

Even though originally from Russia, most of these cameras are produced in China nowadays. Some of the cameras sport a vintage look, others have a colorful, fun look with four or even eight lenses that shoot several photos in a sequence.

Compared with the digital variety, lomo cameras are relatively cheap, selling for an average price of Rp 500,000 ($55) for a standard camera, but people who want to take up lomography as a hobby need to keep in mind that they also have to buy film for the camera and pay to get photos developed, which can add up in the end.

“Despite the costs, I really prefer lomography to digital photography,” Amanda said. “I like the element of surprise when I develop my films and have a first look at the photos.”

Teguh said that he takes one of his lomo cameras with him wherever he goes. He is the proud owner of seven, which are all of the same brand and type.

“Even though the cameras should be exactly the same, the pictures I take with them are not,” he said. “Maybe it sounds crazy, but I think it’s true,” he added. “I even gave my cameras different names.”

Amanda agreed that you needed to get used to the camera first. Her first two rolls of film produced almost no good photos at all. But after a while, she began to see improvement.

“I love taking pictures of little things, like a puddle of mud,” Amanda said. “Some people don’t understand that. One of the 10 golden rules [of lomography states that one should] try to take a picture from the hip. It doesn’t literally have to be from the hip, but I personally like to take pictures of something I can’t see with my own eyes. It is like using the camera as a third eye.”

Ten Golden Rules of Lomography

1. Take your camera everywhere you go.
2. Use it anytime, day or night.
3. Lomography does not interfere with your life, but is part of it.
4. Try to shoot from the hip.
5. Try to approach the objects of your lomographic desire as closely as possible.
6. Don’t think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you have captured on film.
9. You don’t have to know afterwards, either.
10. Don’t worry about the rules.

Lomography Embassy Store Jakarta
Jl. Bumi No. 17, Mayestik
South Jakarta
Tel. 021 739 5302
Open daily from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
lomonesia.multiply.com
www.lomonesia.co.id