Camera phones, lomography and shoot-from-the-hip photography

The Daily Yomiuri has an interesting introductory article about moblogs, where it compares the phenomemon to lomography -- a freestyle concept of photography.

Lomography comes from a style of shooting using the Lomo Kompakt Automat, a cheap film camera originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, that appears to have produced many enthusiasts.

Practictioners of lomography shoot from the hip, notes Jogn Jerney, the writer. They point at anything that interests them and don't worry about the niceities of lighting, focus, composition, the article says. "Lomographs are therefore often fuzzy, always incidentally lit, and occasionally thought provoking," Jerney writes.

Camera phone photos as lomographs

The concept of camera phone use is, in some says, similar to lomography, Jerney says.

Discussing moblogs, he writes, "As with Lomo photographs, quality is not the prime consideration. Instead, the style and personality of the photographer and subject is what really generates interest.

"When looking through moblogs, you find yourself constantly looking for the unexpected but often enjoying the ordinary. Moblogs enable us to lurk, quietly becoming part of a life without commitment or involvement."

New Topographers"

Jerney also compared camera phone photography to a movement in the 1980s and 1990s termed the New Topographers. He says "The New Topographers captured images of everyday occurrences that reflected meaning within our society, but were often missed or ignored because of the pace of life."

Jerney concludes, "Moblogs offer a similar prospect, capturing everyday events as a series of instances that encourage us to apply greater scrutiny when examining ourselves....In one sense, moblogs are kind of like the ultimate reality program."

As I've said and written previously, we are entering a sort of science fiction-ish world where hundreds of millions of people will be able to document -- with still photographs, audio recordings and video -- everything that occurs around them. Things will change because of this.

Adult content or not

The article points out one feature of a moblog hosting service, Yafro, that I didn't realize. You may select a view of moblogs that includes adult content or not.

On the top right-hand side of the Yafro home page, there's a drop down menu to indicate "show" or "block" moblogs with adult content (see below).

I think it's a good compromise between moblog companies that feel it's appropriate to remove all adult content and companies that feel anything goes. The user gets to select the content.

Yes, I know, this doesn't deal with the problem of kids being able to select adult content.

Comments

[james hong]

Hi Alan,

James from Yafro here..

In response to your comment "Yes, I know, this doesn't deal with the problem of kids being able to select adult content."... actually it DOES deal with this. The plan is to add headers to pages with adult content displayed, such that parental controls installed on those machines will block access to the page. In other words, parents still have to do their job of creating a protective environment to shield their children (by means of installing software like NetNanny or by turning on their ISP's parental controls, and we work with them to make sure our content classification works with the tools they use.