The Art of Desolation: The Holga

     Upon searching for Holga photography to inspire me, I noticed a pattern within many of the photos. In nearly every other Holga photograph I found, there was an air of loneliness, isolation, and desolation. Yet, it was a beautiful loneliness. This beautiful desolation seems to be the trademark shot of the Holga, but what more can we do with our Holgas? What other emotions can we evoke with that muggy vignette?

     I believe we can create and emit a broad range of emotion through our photography, so why not through our Holga photography? I wondered why this dim and hauntingly beautiful style became so popular among Holga artists, and realized it was definitely the vignette effect. Without the vignette in the above picture, it would be a simple, still a bit ominous, but simple picture of a road. It's an empty road, but with the vignette it feels tightened, restricted, claustrophobic. Without it, it might feel unrestrained: free. Perhaps this vignette is used in this way because it is so easy to fall into the trap of evoking a constricting feeling, leading to an overall tone of isolation.

     Seeing all of this desolate photography made me want to break the pattern and try and use the vignette in more innovative ways, not just as a moody platitude. When shooting my role I tried using as much light as possible to avoid the dank feeling seen in so many Holga photos. In addition, I took pictures of nature. I hoped that the combination of lighting and nature might brighten a field of photgrahy that seems to be bogged down in the dark, embracing grasp of the hackneyed.