Lomography

The Lomo community makes me think of the first international online community I ever experienced...

I’m probably dating myself a little, but for those of you who can, think back to the year 2000 when suddenly any music you wanted was available, free, through the magic of file sharing.

We were all staying up late searching for bootlegged live recordings of Radiohead covering “Rhinestone Cowboy” and Flaming Lips B-sides. We kept our eyes out for the ones with those little green indicators signaling a T1 connection which ensured you would have your new music safely in your computer in a matter of minutes.

Had we known how short those care-free days would be we would have harvested more of the audio goodness, we would have prepared hideouts for the fugitives to gather after the heavy hand of the law fell.

But we didn’t, and the musical utopia was extinct in a flash of the music industry’s shiny teeth.
This isn’t a post about intellectual property rights.

But, I think one of the cool things about Napster was that it was, to some extent, an international, collaborative community.

Lomography is that to a greater extent. Instead of digital audio, we deal in analogue visual. Yes, Lomography has got a big business behind it, but I really like the community that business shelters and the re- addition of blogs just adds to the interactive possibilities of the lomo community.
Lomo on and blog on too.