This is an extremely simple plastic camera introduced in 1982, Hong Kong. The name of "HOLGA" comes from it's Cantonese name "Ho Gwong", which means "very bright". The plastic 60/8 optical lens is seen as the soul of Holga,it is semi-wide, so the pictures have a wider perspective than usual. Besides, due to the unique texture of plastic, the colours are radiate and the sharpness of images are reduced.
A typical Holga picture also have vignetting around the edges.
Diversity is another specification of Holga, from the look of camera it self to the forms of pictures that it could create, Holga is almost the pronoun of creativity and freestyle.
The Holga camera family include black, green, red, pinhole, 35mm, 120 3D and so on... They all have a simple but classic look.
Pinhole camera does not have a lens, a pinhole in the front will capture the light and along with the long exposure time. In the dark nights, hours of exposure will create a dreamlike style, moving objects will become blur and ghost like. I am personally fascinated by the whole idea of pinhole cameras and the images that it created without focus. They are extremely soft and make me feel relax in some way. Moreover, If the camera is set up in a darker condition, I would like to imagine how amazing the movements and lights will be presented by the Pinhole cameras.
The other strange looking but interesting Holga is the 3D series.This strange looking camera has two lenses and can capture two images at the same time, side by side. When looking through a specific viewer, the pictures could become 3D. This will make the images more vivid and the moment captured freshly preserved.
Recently, Holga introduced build-in coloured flash filters. This increased the possibility of taking photos with different colours. This give me the inspiration of colouring the world, as I just made this short film about a blind guy exploring the colours of the world. I created this story with an idea that the visual impressions of a colour is not important, but the way people feel it. Imagine taking a camera and take pictures with whatever colour you like. When we are in a sad mood, the world would be blue; when we are in a happy mood, the world would be yellow...
This is a cheap, simple, compact camera that suit every backpack or purse. To take it and snap is equal to keep another eye open in our lives. Holga plays with light and mood, it is another point of view that creates it's own world.
Keep the eyes of Holga open.
Sources:
Holga Site
Photon Detector Blog
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