photo opportunity

It's taken me a while to get everything back on track since the move, but I was given a Holga camera for my birthday last week and have accordingly re-found my enthusiasm for photography. If you've never heard of the Holga or of it's more established brother the Lomo, then check out the International Lomographic society which in my opinion is the cooler and more experimental arm of photography. It's an awesome website with some really beautiful pictures (and not a copy of photoshop in sight) and some real technical eye candy. The shop is a bit expensive but a great reference point; for instance their film shop is awesome as it not only shows you typical pictures using each kind of film but also gives you the odd tip about what they're good for and what to use them with.

Incidentally, I found out through an article on the guardian website about Grayson Perry, that there is a "Europe-wide project from Canon in conjunction with the Red Cross, in which members of the public are invited to upload their favourite images, representing the spirit of their own countries, to a website (canon-europe.com/wespeakimage). Canon is making a donation to Red Cross societies across Europe for each image uploaded. The entire archive will eventually be handed over to designers including Matthew Williamson in Britain and Elio Fiorucci in Italy to create "national" fashion collections to be showcased at the London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks."
I'm not so excited about the fashion aspect of this as I am about the philanthropic side, but you can win a canon digital camera in the process and if you have some photos that you feel sum up your country, then send them in. It at least makes for an interesting project...

Katherine Whitehouse
Creative Director