Multiply Exposed

Some of the more quirky analog cameras that I’ve been using over this year have either no protection against multiple exposure at all (combined with a lack of an exposure counter) or actually have a switch to allow for multiple exposures.

Up until now, I have never really played around with double exposures, mainly because most of the cameras I have used so far had some technical solution to prevent double exposures or an extra switch for them. More recently, though, I have bought some cheap cameras (like the Holga or the Lomo Sprocket Rocket) and one not-so-cheap camera (the Lomo LC-A 120) that actually seem to encourage multiple exposures.

But, I will say that not all multiple exposures are created equally. It’s one thing if you find a scene and just press the shutter of, say, the Sprocket Rocket multiple times just because you think it could be a cool thing. And then there are times when you press the shutter of the same camera by accident before you wind on the film.

And then there are times when you’re out on the street to take some interesting photos of, say, a launderette or a neon sign, just to notice that your camera seems to malfunction. You can’t press the shutter, or you can’t seem to wind on the film. This is what happened to me when I took out the Lomo LC-A 120 for the second time on a very cold but sunny winter morning. I had loaded a Lomography Color Negative 800 film and happily walked around the streets of some neighborhood in Berlin when I came across that launderette. I took the shot. And then the camera stalled and couldn’t be wound on. I took another shot, and with my cold fingers tried to unblock the multiple exposure switch that is placed near the film winding know and the release button. I cursed the bloody camera. Probably took another shot. With that film, it happened a couple of times, and some of the examples are shown in this post. All from the same roll of film though not necessarily taken on the same day or not all on the street.

When I was out there, in the cold, eager to take some nice single exposures with a relatively new camera, I really hated it when it happened. I hated it to the point that I’ve sent a couple of emails to Lomography asking for advice if this issue with the multiple exposure switch could be fixed somehow (they’ve never responded).

When I got the film back from the lab, though, and when I had scanned the negatives, I was actually super happy on how the multiple exposures turned out. Especially the last one in this post, which combines multiple street pictures, a picture of the succulents on the windowsill next to my desk. The top of the picture reminds me of some Lyonel Feininger paintings, which makes it even more special and dear to my heart.

I haven’t used this camera since, but now, with some holidays coming up, I hope to take it out to the streets again and see if I can take single shots with it at all.