Learning With Lomography: ISFCI Students and the LomoGraflok - Interview with Emma di Marco

From Bologna to London, up to Bandung, Hong Kong and even Shanghai – we have collaborated with universities and schools all over the world to give creative students the chance to enjoy their own Lomographic experiences. Through this series we see how the students brought their artistic visions to life with the help of a range of Lomography tools.

Today we’re in Rome, Italy, for a very special collaboration with ISFCI - Istituto Superiore di Fotografia. The participants were invited to experiment with large format cameras and the LomoGraflok 4x5 Instant Back and created real masterpieces on instant film! In this interview, we meet Emma di Marco, who introduces us to her fantastic project.

Hi Emma, welcome to our Online Magazine! Tell us about your photographic background. When did you start your journey into photography?

I started approaching photography while writing my thesis for my three-year DAMS degree. It was a path that the university, where I started my film studies, led me to. So I was actually always close to the image dimension. From there, I started doing my first small jobs.

What course are you attending at ISFCI - Istituto Superiore di Fotografia?

I am attending the first year of the three-year course.

When the Institute informed you about this special project involving the use of an instant back - the LomoGraflok - with large format cameras, what was your reaction?

I was excited about the possibility of using a view camera for the first time. The hand-held nature of analogue photography fascinates me a lot. It was also my first time using instant film, so using the two together was exciting.

What are the features you appreciated most about this tool?

Perhaps the fact of being able to use a view camera with instant film rather than plates. Or rather, to be able to use both together, taking something from both.

Tell us about the concept behind this beautiful project.

I wanted to play with the temporal short circuit triggered by the LomoGraflok: a back for instant photography used with a view camera. They are instruments with very different photographic origins, which have therefore historically developed different expressions. I decided to work within this fracture, layering, on each image both levels.

I recreated a series of portraits by taking the iconography of the old photographic portrait - thus a static, cumbersome way of photographing typical of 19th century portraiture and the view camera itself. On the other hand, the use of the instant photos reminded me of the experiments with materials and forms, typical of the 20th century, the period in which instant photography was born, giving impetus to that vast current that reworked and 'dirtied' Polaroids. I then manipulated these images, using various chemicals and reagents on the Fuji Instax Wide inks. Thus, like old daguerreotypes eroded by time, we have a series of images, from the most legible to the least legible, showing the stratifications of time - but a false, artificial time: they are, however, fake antique portraits, artificially aged by manual operations.

Did your research for this project lead to any interesting discoveries that you would like to tell us about?

Yes and no, in the sense that the discovery was purely on the personal side, in the acquisition of certain processes.

What did you like most about shooting with a large format camera?

The uniqueness and visual texture, the detail that a large format camera is able to render, even on instant images.

Are you planning any interesting projects or collaborations related to analogue photography? Or more generally, do you have any future projects you would like to share with us?

I will continue to shoot on 35 mm analogue cameras as I have for the past few years, but I hope to experiment with other formats and other types of analogue prints.

Thank you Emma for sharing your work with us! Follow her on Instagram to see all her upcoming projects.

written by melissaperitore on 2024-09-10 #gear #large-format #lomograflok #lomography-at-art-school #learning-with-lomography