About the Community

First sold in the Soviet Union in 1982, the Lomo Kompakt Automat was developed as an improvement on the Japanese compact cameras of the time. With its sharp lens, high light sensitivity and robust casing, the LC-A (as it became known) sold millions and was a great success throughout the 1980s, but found it difficult to compete in a marketplace filled with cheap battery-powered imports in the early 1990s. Around this time in a small Prague camera shop, some students from Vienna discovered the quirky little camera and, after purchasing a couple and shooting a few rolls of film, they were hooked. Everyone who saw the wonderful photos from their trip soon wanted an LC-A of their own so the word spread and, in 1992, the Lomographic Society was born.

After five years of exhibitions, events and the opening of embassies across the globe, in 1997 lomography.com was launched by the Lomographic Society as an online base for lomographers around the world. It was here that the core group behind justshoot.org first met after a chance comment from Finn on a lomography.com 'lomohome' back in August 2003. He noticed that, "There seems to be an awful lot of Manc Lomographers around but you NEVER see them", and so Dave, upon seeing the comment, took matters into his own hands. He emailed Lori saying, "I read the comments on your guestbook about the many Manchester lomographers never seeing each other and I was thinking that maybe we could try to organise a meeting". He then went on to arrange the first monthly 'meet up' of lomographers in our city and, on 20th September 2003, a small group of us sat down to swap tips over coffee.

This website was developed in January 2004 (then called lomomanchester.org) to promote Lomography in Manchester and beyond. Although our offline activities are based in Manchester and the North West of England, our online activities in the galleries and forums are open to anyone in the world. We are not an formal group or club and have no official links with the Lomographic Society or the recently opened Embassy in Manchester, although we do hope to work with them in the future where it is of benefit to our members. Our aim is simply to have fun and take photographs of our surroundings, which we then plan show to the world in many creative ways.

Logo design by Andrew Mallalieu. Layout and maintenance by Lori Smith. Hosting and much needed technical assistance by Jon Topper.

All content on this website (including text and photographs), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Contacting us

• General enquiries should be sent to justshoot.org [at] gmail.com
• To join the mailing list, email the above address with Sign me up! in the subject line

Buying cameras

If you are planning on purchasing a camera from the lomography shop to help begin (or maintain!) your own quirky photographic habit, you can help Just Shoot to fund future events by using the links below to get to the shop and make your purchase. There's no extra cost to you either so we'd be grateful if you'd consider it. Thanks.