Holgas In The Night

One of the lesser-known facts of my photography career is my penchant for shooting with plastic cameras whenever I can. I'm talking about that category also known as "toy cameras"--the home of the Holga, the Diana and their various relatives. I've been shooting with plastic cameras for several years now, mainly because I really love the quirky, wayyyyy out of the mainstream look that they deliver. Usually the best images of these kind are produced in daylight, but from time to time I've brought my plastic babies out into the world of Hollywood nightlife. I must admit that daylight is much better suited to this type of camera than night imagery, for the day pictures really bring out the major features of plastic cameras--the light leaks, blurred subjects and vignetting. Night pictures just don't show these off as much, so it's really up to the photographer to take advantage of the camera's idiosyncrasies and use them to maximum advantage in the image-making process. Needless to say, this can be quite a challenge to the photographer who's been educated in the new-school DSLR mode of thinking. I mean, the fact that the Holga can only produce twelve 6x6cm images per roll of film must be a daunting one to those accustomed to the ability to shoot continuously until they get an acceptable images, thanks to the invention of the memory card.

Having been fortuitous enough to bridge the gap between film and digital, I can truthfully say that I'm pretty much equally comfortable shooting in both worlds. As of late, I've been shooting quite a bit with my Holgas once again. Over the past few weeks, I've been bringing them out for my nightlife shoots. The image shot above was done at the Monday Social at the Playhouse last week (not the best scan, sorry!). My Holgas almost always attract attention, even as they've become more popular as a sort of cult camera over the past decade or so. Working at Freestyle Photo Supplies, the US distributor for Holga, has given me the chance to contribute in some small way to the Holga legacy, which I did happily in not only rewriting and editing the Holga Manual, but also in writing the copy for the Holgawood marketing and advertising materials. Since Freestyle also provides Holgas for Urban Outfitters, some of my images and text have ended up on the Holga boxes for U.O., which I think is pretty cool.

Plastic cameras are really their own unique photographic category, especially considering that they produce images that could very well be called "anti-digital". Their ambiance is so completely removed from that of digital cameras, it almost doesn't merit a comparison. It can be a pretty extreme example of analog (film) vs. digital under the right conditions. I find it very funny that there are iPhone apps that will convert their phone's camera images into fuzzy, discolored "Holga-like" pictures. I feel very pleased and challenged when I find great plastic camera imagery online...challenged because my competitive nature keeps yelling at me: "Why the hell didn't you think of that one, huh???"

Well, I'm finally going to wrap this one up...got VMA shoots to prepare for, starting tomorrow. Should be a busy weekend.