LOMOgraphy has kept tinkering with the LOMO LC-A, the camera that started their adventures.
In 2008 the standard LC-A gained a double exposure switch, cable release and ISO up to 1600 to become the LC-A+.
In 2011, they turned the wide-angle LC-A into an ultra wide-angle (17mm) version – complete with half-frame and square format makes – to become the LC-Wide.
The experiments weren’t over. In 2014 the LC-A got super-sized.
The LC-A 120 brought the world of LOMO to medium format. Its 38mm Minigon lens, essentially 24mm in 35mm format, offered a similar cinematic viewpoint to the LC-Wide.
I borrowed one of these for a winter weekend’s shoot in Brighton at the end of 2014. I was hooked. Though the camera felt more plastic and lightweight than its 35mm cousins, it was still robust enough and the pictures looked superb.
I borrowed the camera again in late 2015 on a weekend trip to Seville. This southern Spanish city summers in oppressive summer heat but enjoys a long golden slide towards winter. Even in November the weather can be warm enough for t-shirts.
I took this shot at the Plaza de Espana, a huge public square built in the early 20th Century which celebrates the different regions of Spain. It’s incredibly atmospheric, especially in the golden low light of early evening.
I’d loaded the LC-A 120 with a roll of Kodak Elite Chrome 100 and cross-processed it. Just like it’s smaller cousins, the LC-A 120 really suits this kind of process.
Elite Chrome really amplifies golds and blues, aswell as boosting blacks. Xpro’d slide film sings in strong light anyway, but the golden light on those imperial buildings in the background are something really special.
While the LC-Wide came armed with a mask that could let it shoot square-format shots on 35mm, but the giant square frames from the LC-A 120 – and all that extra definition from the bigger negative –are revelatory.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
