Photographer Uses Soviet-Era Camera, Web Community to Create Unique Exhibit - "Hip-Shot: 40-Odd Photographs by John Fulbright" On Display 2/10-4/10/05

After 14 years of commercial portrait photography in John Fulbright felt the need to make more personal pictures. He found the answer in an unassuming Russian camera called a Lomo LCA. The government of the USSR began manufacturing the little camera in 1982 as a cheap-to-produce peoples camera". Since that time, the quirky camera has created a worldwide phenomenon with "lomographers" making and sharing spur-of-the moment snaps on-line.

Beaumont, TX (PRWEB) February 4, 2005 -- easys restaurant, located at 2325 Calder Avenue, Beaumont, Texas will present Hip-Shot: 40-Odd Photographs by John Fulbright, on display February 10 through April 10, 2005.

After 14 years of commercial portrait photography in Beaumont, Fulbright, 40, felt the need to make more personal pictures. He found the answer in an unassuming Russian camera called a Lomo LCA.

It allows you to take wide angle images anywhere, anytime, under any lighting conditions, and the results are just wild. I had felt I was getting a little artistically stale; Lomo was the perfect solution. It freed up my eyes."

The government of the USSR began manufacturing the little camera in 1982 as a cheap-to-produce peoples camera". After the fall of the Soviet Union, European students who used the camera to make quick vacation snaps were amazed at the quirky images it allowed them to produce. Soon, Lomo enthusiasts started their own Lomographic Society", hosting art exhibitions and viewing each others works.

It has since become a worldwide phenomenon, with enthusiasts posting thousands of photos to www.lomography.com every day. It is such a phenomenon that when the Russian Lomo factory decided to cease production of the camera, lomographers convinced the factory heads not to discontinue their beloved camera.

Lomographers follow the 10 Rules of Lomography", which include, Dont think," Be fast," and Take your camera anywhere you go."

The photographs in Hip-Shot follow these rules well. Vividly colored snaps of nighttime cityscapes, neon-lit parties, color-drenched landscapes and motion-blurred action images all have a fly-on-the-wall" perspective.

Lomo isn't just a camera or a process or an on-line community, it's a way of life; a way of seeing that is intimate, immediate," says Fulbright, It embraces the idea that the world of art is limitless; it can be found a thousand miles away, or right at your doorstep."

Owners of these inexpensive cameras receive a free photo site on www.lomography.com.

"You get access to a worldwide community with one thing in common," says Fulbright, the compulsion to document the world as you see it. I have friends all over this country, the UK, Dubai, Japan, Brazil, just to name a few. Instead of calling it a website, we call our individual sites lomohomes" and we invite others to drop in and leave comments. I enjoy the sharing aspect."

To view images from Hip-Shot, log onto www.lomohomes.com/jfulbright . For more information, call John Fulbright Photography at 409-835-7523.

###