The Grand Focus

A manifesto for LoFi photography

An increasing number of people are today claiming that the era of postmodernism has come to an end, and that art is adapting an attitude similar to that of the pre-modernism period. Those were the days of impressionism and post-impressionism, when pictorialism was one of the currents influencing the field of photography. Since then, photography has developed along the lines of technological progress, where the digital revolution has played an important part. Now we begin to see reactions to this development. The term neo pictorialism has begun to appear as a description of low technology photography which communicates the spirit of pictorialist ideals found at the beginning of the 20th century. The thoughts on the characteristics and purpose of photography are still the same, but the subject matter is, of course, created in a contemporary context.

10LoFi is a reaction to the postmodernist view of the photograph as one of many products for mass consumption available on the market. The 10LoFi group, formed by ten photographers from Sweden and Finland, has been discussing low fidelity photography together since 2008 and all of the group’s members were active in this field even before they met. The group’s first two exhibitions took place in Gothenburg and Uppsala in 2010. The shows were presented as a manifesto, where low technology cameras were used to explore the dreamlike and poetic atmosphere that can be created by means of very simple photographic tools. The audience appreciated this attitude and the 10LoFi group decided to continue their work together.

The next chapter of the manifesto is called The Grand Focus. Sharpness in photography has come to be the equivalent of optical quality or resolution. And yes, if such a technical measurement is used to judge our images, they are no doubt often inferior to images made with technologically advanced photographic equipment. What we are looking for, however, is something else. Our standpoint is that image sharpness is created on a number of different levels, where focusing and a strict correlation between the subject depicted and the final image may be one element, but don’t need to be. We claim that it is possible to create photographs in the same way that a painter can create fully functioning images using only a few brush strokes. The lack of detail becomes a valuable asset and a possibility to create photographs that work as leads for the imagination, rather than stating what the photographer wants the viewer to see in the image.

We will continue using our simple photographic tools to explore the world around us and its phenomena. We question technology by regaining control and conducting our own versions of the photographic process. We create photographs based on the lack of control in our cameras, instead of letting ourselves be programmed by the algorithms of major manufacturers of photographic equipment. We strive to create feelings and dreamlike states in the viewer, beyond what the eyes see; images of perceptions.

The images in the manifesto appear purposely trivial or barely perceptible; our aim is to move beyond the apparent and towards the emotional. In order to get there, we again use simple, old or homemade cameras, where the original lens is sometimes replaced by pinholes, zone plates, reversed or homemade lenses. This being made with a great deal of craftsmanship and love for the experience of photographic quality.

Time and space do not exist; the imagination spins, weaving new patterns on a flimsy basis of reality: a mixture of memories, experiences, free associations, absurdities and improvisations. – The characters split, double, multiply, evaporate, condense, dissolve and merge. But one consciousness rules them all: the dreamer’s; for him there are no secrets, no inconsistencies, no scruples and no laws.

Introduction to A dream play, August Strindberg, 1901.