Paper short abstract:

Drawing on our n/ethnographic fieldwork experience in the Lomography community the paper focuses on DIY practices of lomographers and addresses the branding strategies of cultural (photography) industry incorporating these DIY practices for commercial purposes.

Paper long abstract:

Photography is one of the very first modern medium technology that became a popular domestic craft, rather than just a professional practice. This is certainly one of the main reasons why photography has always been endowed with a strong DIY spirit. But photography has also been driven by commercial interests of cultural industry which has sought to commodify production relationships in the area of photography and its vernacular uses. The present paper aims to describe and analyse contemporary dynamics between DIY material practices and commercial interests using the example of the Lomographic Society International (LSI). The paper thus focuses on DIY practices of Lomography enthusiasts and branding strategies of LSI incorporating these DIY practices for commercial purposes. Empirically drawing on the results of nethnographic research of Lomography community we argue that: (1) DIY practices of lomographers are deeply ambivalent as they permanently oscillate between creative and conventionalised, subversive and commercialised, authentic and commodified meanings; (2) the DIY spirit itself is brilliantly commodified by LSI as it is promoted as a core brand value and as such is sold to lomographers symbolically attached to commodities marketed by LSI; (3) the digital marketing and branding tools employed by LSI further strengthen the commodification of DIY spirit by blurring the borders between user generated content and marketing appeals. As such, Lomography community is described as a living laboratory where it is possible to observe several important aspects surrounding the changing role of photography and its DIY spirit in contemporary digital consumer culture.