Some years ago I went through a really dark time beset by heath problems. I thought I would have to give up my first love (but painful lover) filmmaking. I'd just started to read blogs online and saw lots of mention of Lomography and photos taken on the lomo camera.

On a visit to London I walked up Rosebery Avenue near my friends flat - very slowly as I was still ill and passed a Lomography Embassy aka shop (it isn't there anymore). In a moment of madness I entered after looking at the exhibt on the first floor I went down the stairs and encountered a woman with a  thick German / Austrian accent. I surprised myself and stammered that I would like to buy a lomo. We had a quick discussion about the types of camera available and I settled on the Lomo LC-A as I live in Scotland with low light levels.   She very efficiently gave me a quick lesson on film loading, the best kind of film to use (Jessops cheapest), how to load it, processing (Snappy Snaps, border matt), made me listen to the 'click',  showing me the lengh of the click was longer in low light. I handed over a wodge of money and went off. The last time I'd used a camera was about 15 years previously when on a short B&W course as a teenager.

Over the next few months and years I became at one with my lomo. A nice neat size I kept in in my pocket at all times. I took possibly hundreds of films. A considerable number came back blank (the  film loading is tricky and I managed to mangle many sprokets). Slowly I began to learn things, about being present, by noticing, by taking photographs. Acceptance - not assuming that a photograph ought to be a certain way perhaps I could accept it as it was, perhaps it was right. I learned to separate myself from the roaring voice in my head which told me all the time the way things should be, and how I failed to live up to them. Slowly I learned about the different lights - and what worked and what didn't, and how in any case you can't make rules with the lomo.

I have another lover now(shussh don't tell ) its the medium format Holga. But finding all my old prints and CD's of lomos in a recent tidy up has shown me how I got here and also prehaps to get my camera out more and to remind myself of what makes me me and what makes me happy.

More of the history of lomography here and here.