lomography....

''It started with people in their 30s who were art directors in ad agencies or filmmakers. It was very much the creative professions,'' says Karen Boudakian, who founded an Australian Lomography group 10 years ago. ''Then it seeped into people wanting to learn more about analogue photography and now we're dealing with people that have never known film photography.''

When Boudakian brought Lomography to Australia, the company had two models. Kodak stopped making film cameras in 2007 and since then an underground appetite for cult analogue cameras has grown to the point where Lomography now has 200 products and sales are rising by 20 per cent a year.

The final stamp of approval came when Brad Pitt was pictured on the red carpet, a Diana in hand.

Smartphone applications that give photos a retro look also have mushroomed. The Hipstamatic app, based on the Hipstamatic 100 camera, has had 1.4 million downloads.

''It's like the last bastion of film, that's its charm,'' said Ian Tatton, a photographer who will conduct workshops as part of the exhibition.

Boudakian regards Lomography as part of a widespread return to old-fashioned products and ways of doing things. ''People are going back to the old-school process,'' she says. ''They're finding things are just moving too fast and they … want to simplify their lives.''

For Katherine Brickman, 28, who with fellow artist Kate Mitchell customised a Diana for the exhibition, it is a welcome change ''to a world where everything is so digital''.

Tim Hixson, the only Australian photographer with a vignette in the exhibition, remembers buying his first plastic camera in 1970.

''Most of them are now clogged up with sand or filled with water,'' said the 60-year-old from Avalon. ''They're very good down at the beach.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/rewind-to-the-days-of-photos-on-film-20110204