Fluster Magazine

THE DIANA WORLD TOUR – MELBOURNE

By Marc Tan

For people who have not had the chance to experience Lomography, it is basically all about the pleasure of shooting an analogue camera without having to follow the proper rules of photography, but instead, go against them. These plastic cameras are designed to produce dreamy effects, over saturated colours, random focus points and overall brainless film photographic fun. One of the most iconic of these cameras is the Diana. This camera started out in Hong Kong during the 1960’s as a cheap box camera and has since come a long way.

The Diana World Tour started off in Hong Kong and has travelled around the world to places such as Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Barcelona, Shanghai, London, New York. It finally hit the shores of Australia before making its way to Auckland.

The Diana World Tour’s Melbourne showcase was held at the No Vacancy Gallery, well known for hosting exhibitions for emerging local and international artists. Located at the side of the QV building, a mini concrete warehouse vibe was the perfect setting for the Melbourne leg of this tour.

What captured my attention was the Customised Clone Collection, which filled the walls. 25 clones of the classic camera were evenly spaced out on individual shelves; with creative designs ranging from rabbit ears to being covered in stickers. My personal favourite was one with a suit on. These cameras were customised by a selected bunch of artists and creatives from Australia and New Zealand; including Cat-Rabbit, Ellery, Dawn Tan, Ghostpatrol, Scrap Wallk, Jae Mills, Limedrop and more. Each of these clones is a complete one-off and was exhibited as part of the Australia/ New Zealand tour. These customised clones will be auctioned online to raise money for charities www.seethroughme.com.au and World Child Cancer.

Being a fan and a Diana camera user myself, my opinion of The Diana World Tour’s main feature was the famous Detrich Collection that took up two full wall spaces. The Detrich Collection is an incredible exhibition that includes well over 100 original Diana clone cameras from the 60’s to 70’s, amassed by photographer and Diana camera expert, Allan Detrich. It’s simply amazing to see with your own eyes the same camera produced by so many different companies over a period of time. Built for different purposes; each camera has minor differences yet holds their uniformity as a world famous camera.

Other features of the exhibition included the Diana World Tour Global Vignettes Collection, which displays 20 cool and incredible photographs by various photographers from around the globe. These prints are definitely worth checking out for aspiring and current Diana camera users as inspiration. There were also workshops held for fans that were seeking out more new and fun ways to use their Diana F+ cameras.

Although I wasn’t there on the opening night, the vacant atmosphere of the room gave everybody a chance to take their time to examine each and every camera on display and exchange thoughts and ideas about shooting on Diana cameras with the friendly Lomography staff. The Diana World Tour kicked off in Melbourne on the 25 Febuary to the 11 March and continues it journey in Auckland, New Zealand from the 18 March to the 31 March 2011.

Marc Tan was born in Singapore, grew up in Adelaide and is currently living in Melbourne. He is particulary interested in Lomography and live music photography. Marc also writes and records his own music under the name CARRION.

See more of Marc`s work here

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(Images in this article © Marc Tan — Cover Image © Barking Baz Photography)