Closing Reception Oct. 30, 6 - 8 p.m. Free wine!

Ed Snyder’s All-Holga Exhibition – Philadelphia Java Company, Society Hill section of Philadelphia (518 S 4th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147, 215-928-1811). Runs Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, 2008.

Why do photographers sometimes opt for toy cameras? Maybe the precision of high quality gear in some way limits the way in which we choose to express ourselves. There must be something to this, as the company “Lensbaby” sells a two hundred-dollar attachment for your DSLR that makes it behave like a Holga!

So what’s a Holga? Basically a plastic toy camera that uses 120 format film. Wherever I go, I carry an expensive digital SLR and a $25 Holga. Aside from the obvious differences between film and digital, the Holga offers so much more–lens distortion, light leaks, vignetting–glorious imperfections.

Maybe it’s the imperfections themselves, and the resulting unpredictability that intrigues me most about Holga images. With the Holga, there’s mystery and surprise that doesn’t exist in the digital world. For even more unique effects, I shoot decades-old film and cross-process color slide film to make the colors shift and the world grainier (thank you Eileen!). It’s my skewed way of capturing slices of life ranging from the beach to the industrial park–and everything in between!

The 15 images in the exhibit are mostly 12 x 12 inch prints, matted and mounted in 20 x 20 inch black wooden frames.