WANDERING WITH HOLGA

 

The sunny day found me out wandering with my plastic $53 HOLGA Camera. My other cameras were far more sophisticated, producing perfect pictures. But, here I was on this beautiful day with the HOLGA, a camera many regarded as a toy.

Still, I would meet new people attracted by the look of the camera. None of which would stay around long enough to learn the mystery, history and fame of it. I also knew great photos would be only once in a while. The camera just had too many faults to produce anything consistent. That was in fact the great appeal to it, the blurs, light leaks, and film quality of the results. It had a cult following among Retro fans. Ones led by generation Z who had never known anything without the immediate feedback of a display screen.

There was none of that with the HOLGA. A film camera the required processing and time to see the results. They were all different than anticipated. Sometimes you forgot to take off the lens cap or advance the film producing double exposures. You always carried the most important accessory for the camera, a roll of tape to seal the cracks in the plastics around the film cage.

You hoped for an award winning photo like David Burnett got on the 2001 Al Gore campaign. Burnett, a photo journalist was bored with the ditto photos others were getting, So he bought a HOLGA and started using it. The shot of Gore at the podium with dramatic clouds in the background was a winner.

Despite its Eastern European sounding name, the camera was invented and manufactured by Le Ting Mo in Hong Kong in 1980. It used 120 film. The name HOLGA in Chinese means very bright. Mo thought it would become the camera for the masses in China. But the invent of 35 mm film shelved his efforts. Production was stopped entirely in 2010. However, a cult following had developed for the camera. A firm called Sunrise learned Le Ting had kept the mold for the camera as a souvenir. Sunrise jumped at the opportunity to again manufacture the HOLGA in 2017.

Even with todays manufacturing processes, no two HOLGA cameras turn out the same. Each is unique in the image produced. Still, it’s often hard to relate to perfection even though the modern world seems to demand it. You find yourself hungry for uniqueness and flaws that make you stop and relate. On this count the HOLGA delivers an adventure in life for anyone brave enough to wander with it.