Call Me Mad...

...but I just uploaded well over 500 photos.

EDITS: Scratch that, I uploaded about 450 completely new photos, and I made a mistake on how the new images were posting, so now they should be visible to all. Sorry about that!

No, it's not from the vacation I took less than 30 hours ago, but they're pictures from the year 2005 after I bought my Lomo LC-A.

For those not familiar with it, the LC-A is a Russian deadstock camera that was discovered by some Viennese students that fell in love with the camera and decided to buy out the stock and market the hell out of it, going against the popularity of cheap and quick Asian point and shoots of the time. The phenomena also known as Lomography is a brand and an aesthetic that can be recogized by low-fi images with super saturated colors and blown out highlights. I happened upon the brand when I wanted to buy a Holga and found out they had absorbed the cheap, Chinese 120 plastic fantastic cameras as well, trying to corner the market on kitsch, nostalgia, etc.

I have to say, I do like the aesthetic and the philosophy. It's the style lovechild of Martin Parr and Nan Goldin, and how could I not fall in love with the style, as both artists' work inspire and excite me on so many different levels. And as overpriced as the cameras are thanks to their clever marketing skills, I do love the way they take pictures.

I tried resisting getting one, but one Good Friday I had the day off (thanks in part for working at a proprietary school owned by a Catholic), and was having a generally bad day, and decided to drive out to the main Samy's all the way out on Fairfax and dropped the cash to get one of my own.

It was love at first smell. Really. It had this distinct smell of mechanical parts and oil and age that just drew me closer to it, and after getting recommendations on a good, high saturated film, I didn't stop until I quit my decent-paying job, went to NYC for a while and could no longer afford the film and processing costs to keep the addiction going.

In preparation of uploading my Hawaii pictures for all to see, I renewed my Flickr Pro account, as it expired before I left and forgot to get around to renewing it. Realizing I never shared this part of my life (Spring-late Fall of 2005, including my "quarter life crisis" when I turned 25 and was sick for 6 weeks from a self-destructive phase I call stupidity), which was a period where this camera never left my side, and was always ready to take a shot from the hip, I figured I might as well show these pictures I'm sure no one has seen all of.

It was a really strange time for me; as you may notice, a good deal of the pictures are of me going about my day, taking pictures of my office, my train ride into work and my coworkers. This was the summer of a pretty good depression, where I really didn't do much outside of waking up, going to work, then coming home to do it all again. That's what probably helped me save enough money to take all these pictures and still be able to go to New York for two months, and then remain unemployed for another 6 months after that. Of course, there are other things in there as well, such as a trip to Vegas for a Bachelorette party, Disneyland jaunts, having out-of-towners over, weddings, graduations, work ditch days to take pictures of plants, etc.

If there's anything to gleam from this massive collection of images, it would be a way to gain perspective on how I see the world; how I look and frame and perceive those things around me.

Now that I drive my car into my tiny office with my one co-worker, my life has definitely slowed down, and things don't seem so adventurous anymore. But who knows...with time to settle things down, money that will allow me to finance this expensive hobby, and the security I'll feel if/when I no longer have to be on Survival Mode, perhaps I'll be able to get back to these habits that always made me happy.