A Lomography International Film Swap (Part 2)

This year to celebrate Film Photography Day, we organised an ambitious international film swap, pairing up Lomography community members from all over the world and challenging them to create combined works of art while making intercontinental connections.

Our film rolls traveled thousands of miles, from one partner to another, resulting in some stunning, unique, and completely unpredictable creations. Today we bring you even more results from our #lomoworldfilmswap!

UK X Thailand

Caroline: The most challenging part of a film swap is lining up the frames, and not necessarily knowing the style of the photographer who has already shot the roll - do they frame their shots with a subject in the center? Or do they fill the whole frame with action? When I double expose my own shots, I can balance the content of the scene more. A film swap brings in a completely unknown quantity which is exciting.

I used a Yashica FRi, shooting the film at 400 ISO, allowing the camera’s own light sensor to choose the automatic settings. Since it was an international film swap, I kept my photowalking route close to the main iconic sights of London: the Thames, Parliament and various features of the Southbank.

My frames sadly drown out some of the Thai ones. But there are many great shots where Thailand and the UK meet in one frame. I have two favorites (below.) The left is because of the subtlety of the double exposure, and the right because of the flowers surrounding the Houses of Parliament.

To my partner I want to say thanks for the film swap! I love the results and it’s been great to share the images on Instagram - a new Insta friend! And check your camera: one of us has a light leak!

Bird: I like that photos of Bangkok and London can mix in one photo. It is something very special to me and the most special thing about the project is an error in the photos, some light leaks, or double frames. It makes the photos unusual and very charming.

I tried to include things that are unique in the pictures such as Tuk Tuks or graffiti works that have Thai characteristics.

For friends who want to try a film swap for the first time, don't be afraid to take photos, whether they will come out beautiful or not. Have fun with it. The results will be good or bad; it depends on what you like. There is no right or wrong, but taking photos together with friends is the best thing.

It was great to take photos with a stranger, in a place I've never been. It's a new experience for me.

Canada X South Korea

Kyoungsoo Lim: For this Film Swap shoot, I captured my favorite scenes of the day while moving from Jong-ro to Yongsan in Seoul. I usually avoid including people in my shots. Instead, I focused on capturing backgrounds and compositions that could serve as settings for the next photographer to include a portrait. I used my everyday camera, the Lomo LC-A for this shoot, and considering the characteristics of the film, I set the ISO to 200.

As someone who works in photography professionally, I often find myself able to predict the results of my shoots, regardless of whether they're digital or analogue. To counteract this predictability and seek fresh inspiration, I sometimes experiment with shooting methods that yield unpredictable outcomes. I've leveraged film imperfections, experimented with multiple exposures, and even used expired film. When I was invited to participate in the Film Swap collaboration, I was intrigued by the prospect of how these unpredictable elements might shape the final outcome. From this perspective, Film Swap collaborations ultimately provide each participant with an engaging experience that expands the possibilities of photographic techniques through unexpected results.

Until I received the final results, I imagined and predicted a lot. I was really curious. Since I don't usually do portrait photography, I hoped that my partner would include portraits, and I was fortunate that the partner did. Additionally, using the Sprocket Rocket camera to create a perforation panorama was also entertaining.

I really adored the portrait photo where the model was photographed alongside a branch with leaves that hadn't bloomed yet. I felt that the background of the photo and the pose of the model captured a blend of Eastern and Western aesthetics seamlessly into one photo.

Alexandre: As the second shooter, I carried the weight of making something good out of someone else's creative output. As @the_last_lugosi (the model I shot the film with) said, "we made art together from opposite sides of the world". I felt a strong responsibility to produce something that would be at least interesting. Another stressful aspect is that I decided to process the film myself at home.

Once the fear of failure is behind me, the feeling of living here and now takes over. That strong sensation of living in the present time is overwhelmingly awesome. It's like taking a deep breath after passing through bad air. The motivation to do film swaps again has become very high, to say the least. Getting that feeling of ridding myself of the daily duties is strangely addictive.

My tip for newbies is just to avoid overthinking. Hoping that the other shooter will manage (or has managed) to shoot light or dark tones is quite useless. Just shoot. Don't even think about underexposing the film for the double exposure or anything like that. Just...shoot!

The results were shocking (in a good sense!) They came out as if we knew, from both sides of the planet, what the other shooter had captured. As I went on scanning the film after having it processed, I was wondering, "how is that even possible, what are the odds?" No matter how the photographs are received by the Lomography community, I would be willing to do it again! Thank you so much for this awesome opportunity!

Thank you to our talented Lomographers, Caroline, Bird, Kyoungsoo, and Alexandre for participating in this international film swap! See all of the results from their swaps at #lomoworldfilmswap and on their respective LomoHomes – @FOREMAN2GRAPHY
@ALEXPORTRAITPHOTO and @MR_LIM.

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written by alexgray on 2024-06-12 #culture #people #places #korea #canada #film-swap #double-exposure #uk #thailand #film-photography-day #international-film-swap