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Lo-Fi photography and CGI

Welcome to my Lo-Fi art gallery.

What is Lo-Fi photography?

I am an extremely purist person when it comes to photography. As I understand it, (digital) Lo-Fi Photography is a type of photography where the photographer applies to himself a series of strict constrains in various aspects, such as (but not limited to) resolution, equipment and mindset for the purpose of, apparently, limiting the message a photograph can visually communicate.

The most important thing is to portrait feelings, emotions or situations with limited resources, presenting the viewer with a basic idead or image, then let him imagine the rest. Observing a lo-fi photography is not a passive activity, but rather an active one. The viewer must actively dig deeper into his mind, heart and memories, and try to recreate with his imagination what the photo doesn't clearly show. Basically what I am saying is that observing a Lo-Fi Photograph is not an extrospection action but rather a trigger for introspection.

Lo-Fi photography and constrains

The human brain is a machine that is always trying to fill in the gaps of missing information, specially visual information. When a photograph is missing part of such information, the brain will try to fill that gap, and the only way to do so is by recalling old memories and emotions. A partially blurred image of a busy street at night might awaken an old feeling of your childhood, or from that memorable day you went partying with your friends, or a sense of happyness or sadness, but that feeling comes from your inside, not from the photograph itself because the photograph doesn't depict a clear situation. That same photo might awake even opposing feelings to different viewers.

But when you present an individual with a clear image, the room for imagination is limited. The individual is not allowed to view the world from his/her own perspective, not allowed to recall memories, unable to feel emotions from with-in, but rather from with-out. The individual is limited to passively observe a scene and only feel what is being communicated there. A photo of a homeless person might be sad, but that sadness comes from the photo, not from yourself. Every single viewer will feel the same emotion.

A lo-fi photographer sets strict constrains to his photos, such as:

Low megapixel count: this makes the image to have reduced levels of detail.
Simple cameras: LCD screens, complicated settings, focusing modes, lenses, batteries... all these things distract you from the situation. A simple camera with frame count, flash mode and macro/normal mode is enough!
Limited image quality: some over or under exposure, blur, tilted image etc is fine.
Each shot is final: take the photo. Ideally, your camera shouldn't have an LCD screen anyway. Just let it be.
Shoot in automatic mode: You are the photographer, no the technician. Let the camera do technical stuff for you. Let the camera's personality be shown in the photos. If you don't like its personality, change the camera rather than changing yourself.
Limited storage space: one photo per situation only. If a situation doesn't say anything to you, probably it doesn't worth capturing. 20 to 25 photos per day are more than enough. Learn to capture something that really worths the time and effort. Homeless people have been captured ad-nauseum (and you should not capture other's misery anyway). Eiffel tower, idem. Whatever Japanese shrine, idem. You can only capture 20 or 25 photos per day. Memory/film is too precious to waste them.
Publish unedited works: Do not edit your photos other than some minor things such as straighten or compressing. Basically, do not change what the camera captured. Again, let it be. It is the camera's personality. If you don't like the colours, contrast, sharpness, etc, change the camera, do not change yourself.

If you don't have a simple or toy camera, do not worry. You can still use your DSLR. Set it to automatic mode, deactivate the LCD screen and set the quality/resolution to lowest possible. Set the focusing range to infinite (basically like a point-and-shoot camera). Use a prime lens, maybe 35 or 50 mm. Use the viewfinder, point towards your subject and shoot. Use the SD card with the lowest capacity you can find. Don't check the LCD screen because you might miss the next amazing shot when you check the LCD for a few seconds.