Lomographic Milestones: It All Started 17 Years Ago

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We’ve had 20 years of Lomography, and I’ve been a part of the movement for almost 17 years. But, I said “almost” because I had long breaks in between. Anyway, I think it’s time to look back at those old pictures from the beginning. I have to admit I never made an effort to scan all my old pictures, but there are still a few of them. I think it’s worth it to have a look at them.

Credits: bloomchen

It must have been in 1996 when I moved to Leipzig for my studies. It was a new step that brought me far away from my family and friends. I was excited. But soon there was this feeling to have a closer look at my past, not only because getting to know new people meant getting asked about my roots and what I have done so far all the time. I also noticed that there were almost no pictures of my life from the time I was 13 to 21. It couldn’t go on like this I thought.

The ones to blame for me finding my way to Lomography are the members of the music band Tocotronic from Hamburg. They had these sweet blurry photographs in their booklets and I fell in love with the imperfect shots immediately. So I went in a photography store in my hometown and bought myself a Lomo LC-A. This is a shot from my first roll ever, which I took while driving by an Aral fuel station in Tübingen, Reutlinger Straße:

Credits: bloomchen

The camera was/is so handy that I took it with me all the time from then on. And I really mean all the time. It’s small but not that small so I could easily put it in the pocket of my shorts. So I bought myself a shoulder bag. Today, I would even go to the bakery with my bag and at least one camera inside.

Tabletop soccer in the legendary pub Kohla in the city Reutlingen where I went to school and spent my nights.

The pictures I took in the beginning were pretty awful but back then I didn’t see it that way. But from then on I started documenting everything that happened in my life.

Shots from my years of study in Leipzig.

After more than two years I moved from Leipzig to Berlin. As you can imagine there were so many things to take pictures of. Being new in Berlin I was always cruising through the city by bike with one of my best friends. The LC-A was always in my bag. In the gallery below, you can look at a compilation of my first two years in Berlin. Some of these places do not exist anymore: The Bar Pigalle in the Friedelstraße in Berlin-Neukölln (it was a brothel), the Potsdamer Platz, a club in the Falkensteinstraße in Berlin-Kreuzberg which was in the courtyard of an unoccupied housing block (where you could dance on an open-air space until sunset and even longer), the flea market at the Arconaplatz (it was moved to the Mauerpark), the Love Parade in Berlin, portraits of my friend who was strolling with me all the time, the Pfaueninsel (small island in the Wannsee), the Mauerpark and a bottle of dutch beer from the former snack-bar Hummel Snacks in the Reichenberger Straße.

Credits: bloomchen

Shortly after moving to Berlin, my car, a Peugeot 205 Junior, like the our dear community member @peopel owns, broke down.

Credits: bloomchen

Before I got the Peugeot, I had a Citroen 2CV. There’s this saying among owners that if you ever owned a 2CV you will have it for life. And it’s true. I bought myself a completely refurbished special edition Dolly. From then on, we were unstoppable (my girlfriend, the LC-A, the 2CV Dolly, and myself); we went to France, Corse, Spain, Italy, Finland (without the 2CV), Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Here is a small compilation:

Among these shots shows the residence of Salvador Dalí, and my 2CV only 3 – 4 hours after I bought it. I know it’s a bit of car-porn.

Well, those are my early Lomogrphic Milestones from until around 2003. After this, something different replaced lomography for a few years in my life. But until then my girlfriend and I took part in Lomo-Contests that were organized by the Lomographic Embassy in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, and we did even win prizes. I also took part in the Lomographic Summer Sampler Album contest (see photo below). By the way, LSI, that would be something to do again— pure analogue content!

Credits: bloomchen

Back when the ActionSampler was released, I had a job as dispatch rider during my studies, and a job in Vienna. So I took the opportunity to visit the Lomography HQ and bought it directly from the Lomo people. I still remember that on my way back to Germany there was a snowstorm and I was on the road with a rented van with summer tires. So, I drove behind a snowplow because I didn’t want to risk driving a rented car onroadside ditch. I remembered that I took a shot of the snowplow with my LC-A, and amazingly, I found it!

Credits: bloomchen

Can you believe this?! Yes, those were the days. Also, during my search I found a few interesting old pictures, including those from a roll with light paintings in b&w from around 2002. I must have taken them with my LC-A but I don´t remember how I made it). Maybe I’ll scan them if have the time But, having some time off will be difficult.

written by bloomchen on 2013-12-23 #dance #lifestyle #bar #travel #beer #mountains #cinema #pub #adventure #bike #car #lc-a #vacation #jump #shadow #lubitel #mirror #dog #travelling #chair #experience #beetle #string #ente #kino #berge #lomo #tree #lomography #baum #kafer #2cv #citroen #fahrrad #bier #urlaub #reisen #corse #hund #lomographie #leipzig #lubi #tanga #bloomchen #korsika #erlebnisse
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7 Comments

  1. herbert-4
    herbert-4 ·

    Great article, and 2CV was greatest microcar of all time! Forget VW Bug, long ago, in the 60's, in the USN, I had to answer auto accidents in an ambulance on Pacific Coast Highway, VW Bugs rolled easily, had crappy brakes, caught fire often, and were far worse than any Corvair, which had good brakes, and didn't catch fire, and didn't roll easy, no matter what Ralph Nader said, but were really crappy handlers. My first car was was a 1960 Corvair 4 door, green, and was unstoppable, too.

  2. bloomchen
    bloomchen ·

    @herbert-4 thanks for your comment and likes. and merry christmas to you too. btw: i'd still buy a 2CV immediately if i would be in the situation to have money left to do so. anyway due to ecological laws i had to sell it. difficult to explain. and today i can only buy one as luxury car because it's not a family car and i could not travel with it with two kids. and a big WOW: the corvair looks dope. unfortunately the 2CV became very rare and therefore expensive. a good refurbished one today is about double the price it costed when you bought it new back then. and if you want specials it costs even more. just the other day i saw a refurbished one for more than 20k euros. it's a hobby then for people with a lot of money.

  3. sirio174
    sirio174 ·

    great article!!!!

  4. istionojr
    istionojr ·

    great stories. :)

  5. vicuna
    vicuna ·

    great story!

  6. sweetyyydreams
    sweetyyydreams ·

    awesome story, and some of your photos from back then are really great!!

  7. nural
    nural ·

    Great story! I should write mine too ;) and I'll now go check for photos of the 2CV we had when I was just 3 years old!

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