Going Lomo

Lomography is a style of photography that has become particularly influential within recent years, as the vivid colour, imperfections and worn aesthetic create a sense of nostalgia that appeals to audiences, as it evokes memory. Social media filters simulate the lomo aesthetic and it is the audience’s understanding that although these images look dated, they are in fact modern representations of quite literally rose tinted experiences. In my own social images, the aesthetic amplifies the content and suggests that the imagery is of an artistic nature. As Nathan Jurgenson writes in The social photo: on photography and social media:

“filters would fade the image (especially at the edges), adjust the contrast and tint, over-or undersaturate the colors, simulate lens effects and color distortions such as chromatic aberration, blur areas to exaggerate a shallow depth of field, add imitation film grain, and so on. Often, the photos are made to mimic the look of having been printed on physical photo paper.”