Kevin O'Connell

I've been taking photos for 20 years now. My primary camera is an ancient Pentax ME Super which I've had repaired many times over the years but is one of the best SLRs I've ever used. I've been experimenting with digital photography for the last 4 or 5 years, mainly with low resolution and low tech digital models.I bought a Holga about 2 years ago after having seen some interesting examples of its output on the net. I was intrigued by the simplicity of the camera: rudimentary focus, no metering, a totally plastic body and lens. Images can be exposed multiple times, you can wind on the film partially to expose over multiple frames. The Holga uses medium format film which results in richly coloured images.Due to the nature of the Holga, the quality of the images obtained relies to a great extent on chance. The poor lens construction results in a soft focus with a marked vignette effect. The camera leaks light, so most images have additional areas of overexposure. I find that the film rewind is so poor that additional exposure can occur after the film has been removed from the camera, which can yield additional unpredictable results.So why use such a Holga? Quite simply, I'm fascinated by the resulting images, which have an ethereal quality that I find lends itself to landscape photography. The cameras foibles and cheap build quality are at odds with the hi tech precision of modern digital SLRs. The lack of control means I have to revaluate how I compose and take photographs.