The Godfather of Lomography

Last night I encountered the first program on BBC Four that I was actually interested in watching: The Lomo Camera: Shoot from the hip. As you’d expect it was packed full of fantastic photos taken on the classic Lomo Kompakt Automat and the newer multi-shot cameras produced by the Lomographic Society, but the really interesting stuff was about the history of the Lomo. Way back in the early 90’s the Lomographic Society was beginning to take off, and needing a reliable supply of Kompakts, made a deal for its exclusive worldwide distribution. Unfortunately shortly thereafter, the Lomo PLC (now in the world of capitalism) worked out its per-unit production costs and discovered they were higher than the per-unit sale price, thus deciding to cease all production. The Lomo Society tried many tactics to convince them to continue production, in the end involing then Mayor of St. Petersburg, Vladamir Putin. Putin, realising the importance of the Lomo Kompakt to both St. Petersburg & Russian history, as well as to the Lomo Society, managed to convince (pressure ?) the factory to continue production. Truly he is the Godfather of Lomography