The Holga Experiment

Abstract

This body of creative work is inspired by a little blue book written by Garcia and Miralles titled ‘Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life’. The Holga Experiment was a project developed as a way for me, as an artist, to explore a different creative approach. It stripped out all complex photography equipment to a bare camera body and an inexpensive toy camera lens. This method of practice allowed a more personal and focussed view on how important practicing art and photography is to me personally. It drew me closer to a more autobiographical connection with the space I inhabit and photography as a creative practice. Using the Japanese philosophical perspective, I was able to explore this concept of Ikigai - my purpose in life! The work also promotes an additional form of Japanese philosophy with the notions of Wabi-Sabi. Wabi-Sabi is an early Zen Buddhist concept that was first developed during tea ceremonies. It is a concept of finding beauty within imperfection and its self-reflection of life’s quality with all its turbulence as a distraction from purpose. The optical artefacts in this work are produced organically using a plastic toy lens fitted to a digital camera body. The inexpensive Holga lens aids in producing a form of the Holga aesthetic now synonymous with this type of toy film camera.