As BOLD had briefly explained, LOFI stands for "low-fidelity". It literally means low faithfulness or loyalty. Not to your girlfriend or boyfriend la, of course! It's low faithfulness to the primary requirements (or rules) of photography such as sharpness, focus, and sometimes even color. These photos usually refer to photos taken with toy cameras, such as Holga, Lomo, Polaroid, so on.
This is because these cameras use plastic lenses which does not produce the same sharpness as that of a glass lens. These cameras are also coupled with problems such as light leakages, inaccurate exposures (you literally have to guess your exposure, unless you're a well trained film photographer which can calculate exposure within the blink of an eye) and focusing problems. Precisely because sharpness and focus is not exactly a requirement in this area of photography, some people may see it as "unorthodox", which is why it is termed this way.
However, don't be mistaken that LOFI images are not worth taking or looking at. Many photographers are able still able to produce excellent images with these cameras such as these-
This is what is known as Action Sampler, it takes 4 photos one after another on a single frame of film. The red thingie on the sides are due to light leaks.
This is done with multiple exposures, stacking two different compositions onto one frame.
(Photos Courtesy | Internet)Why then, did the Alumni choose to do an exhibition based on this theme?
I believe there should be no rules or boundaries to art. Photography is yet another platform for artists to express their creativity and innermost emotions. When the word "photography" is taken apart, it literally means painting with light. If this medium should allow self-expression, then we should be able to manipulate the light as we deem fit.
Furthermore, as college photographers, the requirements of event photography is very much high-fidelity. This is a chance for all of MJC photographers, past and present to do something very different from what we always do.
To be honest, the Photog Dreams are still there. Even after graduating from MJC for a couple of years now, these lao jiaos still want to do something grand. With their juniors.
As some of you have previously joined in the discussion on Facebook would already know that we are aiming to have around 200 4R entries to fill up an entire wall at the canteen. The exhibition is held in conjunction with College Day (24th July) so J2s and J3s, this is a good time to show your parents the product of your hard work in school! To date, this is probably the biggest exhibition (in terms of quantity) we've ever tried planning. 200 entries will not be too difficult a number to reach if all of you could join in the fun! Each one of you are encouraged to send in 10 photos each, and coupled with your set of entries, you may do a write up of yourself, introducing yourself. The write up will be included in the exhibition.
In your write up, include your NAME, YEAR (e.g. 2005), intro and a fun mugshot of yourself (you can even lofi yourself)!
If you think you don't have 10 entries to submit, no worries, you may still contribute to the photo wall! We'll have a roll call of all the photographers who have submitted photos!
How to submit?
Send in your packaged folder(s) to mjcphotog.alumni@gmail.com with the header containing [NAME]
(Example: EUNICE CHAN 2006 Part 1 of 3 if you need to split your photos into a few emails)
You may also send through Yousendit.com to our email with the same header in the event that your email service refuses to squeeze your photos through the poor server....
Remember to include your write up hor!
Submission opens next week! For those who don't know how to photoshop their photos into LOFI, sit tight for Junsen's e-tutorial! *dagger glare at Junsen to hurry up*
Submission closes 4th July 2010 midnight! So get on cracking, go out and shoot!
GOGOGO!
Your Alumni President,
Eunice Chan aka Grouch/G
