Lameography could have got me a Best-Of

On my birthday, I received a large package at work. It turned out to be glorious schwag from one of the stock photo agencies that I'd used recently. In it was lots of great design-nerd stuff (font mugs, wall poster), and this weird-looking camera



What is this? I asked Caitlin in the cube next to me. Oh, it's a lomography camera she replied. So I immediately set about giving it away.

One of my film nerd friends decided to take it, but here now for your enjoyment is the craigslist post I wrote.

Lomography Camera for Serious Hipster - $50 (Somerville)
Are you a hipster douchebag? Do you embrace mediocrity and worship nostalgia for its own sake? Would you like a camera that takes small, blurry pictures, on purpose?

I have for you a brand-new Diana F+, the camera that grades itself. It’s a Lomography camera, but, not familiar at all with this concept, when I saw the label on the front I misread it as “Lameography.” From the Wikipedia article, I see that this was originally manufactured as a cheap novelty, but now it is apparently an expensive novelty (~$60 on Amazon), with 50-year-old technology.

Great for:
* Taking small, blurry pictures that look like everything is set on Coney Island in the 1960s. On real film (not included). With light leaks and everything!
* Tricking your friends into thinking that you’re like, totally deep (a sensitive artist!)
* Perpetuating the hipster idea that aggressive mediocrity is a valid artistic principle.

My friend tells me that they’re going to be making a digital lo-mo soon, so better snap this up before maintaining your cred becomes that much more expensive or the cognitive dissonance lifts, whichever comes first. I’ll even throw in this book of hipster photography and poorly-written short stories about how much people love their Diana F+s

If you’re the kind of person who actually wants to buy this camera off me, maybe you’ll be offended at all the offensive things I’ve said about hipsters and lomography in general. That’s cool; we can both still get what we want out of this deal.

$50, and I’m open to creative trade negotiations as well if you’re smart enough to realize that you can’t afford a whole $50 for a vanity camera.