LomoAmigo: Milos Gazdic and His Belair Shots

LomoAmigo Milos Gazdic is a freelance photographer also represented by 101 Production from Belgrade, Serbia. Keep on reading to get to know this photographer who has no limits!

Name: Milos Gazdic
Country: Serbia
Occupation: Photographer
Website: hellisroundthecorner
Tumblr: hellisroundthecorner.tumblr

How long have you been a Lomographer (or are you new to this whole thing)?
I am into photography for last 25 years, since I was 14. Film was the thing that was ruling when I was starting. On top of that I am coming from Belgrade, Serbia which as part of East Europe was overwhelmed by eastern technology in last 50+ years. Taking all that into consideration many of original Lomo cameras went through my hands during this time. Cameras like LC-A, Lubitel 166, Hoizont & Diana -just to name few were part of my collection during these years for shorter or longer period. Horizont probably being the favorite of those old ones & the one that I keep close to me.
On the other hand I cannot say that I am a real Lomographer though some of the rules that you apply – I follow blindly, especially the one that says: Take your camera everywhere you go! I usually take 4-5 of them and I use them any time just like rule #2 says, and photography is really part of my life. My lovely wife Jelena sometimes says – that I care more about photography then her. And I shoot not only from the hip but from any awkward position you could imagine, like a real juggler. And I do approach my objects very closely. Sometimes so close that I can even touch them while shooting. And I do it quite fast, which is quite aligned to my explosive personality, although lately by using again lots of Instant films & large format cameras I am trying to slow myself a bit more! And by feeling like a real punk – I think I break a lot of rules or make my own when I want… BUT what makes me not being Lomographer is that I LOVE to think & come up with the Concepts, Ideas, Stories – small & big… And I love to know what I have captured on film & how it’s gonna look when processed. Basically I believe that Lomography is too often about uncontrolled imperfections, while I like my imperfections controlled.
As you notice – I am also very extensive & lengthy! In photography too. Hence I shoot a lot.

Describe the Belair in five words.
Can I do it in 10? I believe it’s probably next to Horizon Perfect & Lomo LC-A+ the best camera in current Lomography range! But ok, it is:
1) Cool,
2) Potent (has potential for creativity & further improvements & development),
3) Very Light,
4) Old-School but
5) quite Flimsy

The strangest, funniest, or hands-down greatest photographic/Lomographic encounter that you have ever had.
Huh. Quite hard question. Basically – my shoots are supposed to be fun, cool & strange! I try to make out of every experience, either the travel shots, personal projects or commercial assignments something that both me, model & everyone else on the shoot will remember.

If you could take your Belair and a sack of film anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?
Trip around South America. And why? Place for spontaneity. Reach & saturated colors. Cool & vibrant people. And finally – I’ve never been there – is there a better reason?

The one person (living or deceased) who you would most like to photograph.
Joe Strummer.

Your advice to future Belair shooters.
Send your comments to Lomography. Camera has lots of potential and can become strong driver in film consumption which will help it stay alive.
Tricks that I have discovered are:
- wet-sand the edges of the frames (they are quite thick & shiny and as such reflect light to the film)
- if you need to shoot with flash but don’t wanna use it as fill-in, as it was imagined by Lomography squeeze the shutter very fast. It will cut the exposition shorter than calculated. On top of that trick the light meter’s sensor by dialing much higher ISO than the one you’re really using (which will also cut the exposition shorter)
- be careful with the viewfinder attachment point & flash hot-shoe…
- get used to imprecise viewfinders. Mask them with black masking tape if you shoot narrower frame than 6×12 so it’s gonna be easier to frame fast.
- Try glass lenses!! Since I still didn’t do it!! And tell me what you think :)

How was shooting in Belair Launch Party in Lomography Gallery Store, did you like working with random people as models.
I adore working with random people & demanding from them strange things… It was amazing seeing them change their personalities for the shots, allowing me to draw on their faces with markers or put my fingers in their mouth, feed them bananas… I know people can be easily pushed to do things that they don’t necessarily want (hence all the wars and other silly things that people do) but I didn’t know that out of about 100 people 99% would say yes to every proposal I made. And those were not really conventional I believe. Only one girl rejected to stretch her mouth with her hands & show me her nice jaw with great white teeth!
Shooting with Belair was FUN! but I have to admit shooting was quite tiresome, though I like it like that :)
First of all there were all these people, and for each one I had to invent something new on the spot, explain them in English (most of them were Turkish) what they have to do. And then I had to decide from which distance I will shoot given idea & person in it. When I decide this, I had to move around (quite a lot), move the studio flash head which I’ve used as a main light, in such way that it stands as close to my shoulder and camera in order to cast as little shadow as possible, adjust flash’s power so it will be appropriate for the given distance, rewind the film (which in all that rush sometimes happens to be forgotten – I had 3 overlapped shots in those 15 films I’ve shot), think about the framing so I could in my head calculate the parallax correction for the given frame & then shoot with very fast click on the shutter so I can cut the exposition…
So, quite a few steps for more than 150 frames shot (we mostly shot 6×6, though we tested 6×12 frame on the party, too) and all that without a stop. Adrenaline was pumping quite hard and people’s smiles and creative interaction was what made me enjoy this old school process even more!

Which photo is your favorite in exhibition photos?
I doubt I have one favorite shot :) It was even hard to cut down to 30 or so shots from all the shots we made!
What is for me interesting micro collection is the three shots with green wig. It’s awesome to see how same, identical wig pulls people in to completely different directions & extracts out of them absolutely different moods & stories. As I’ve said above already, it was great to see that I could persuade them on many silly things although it was public event. I know where it could have gone if we all met in private.
And please note: I went & washed my hands before giving the finger to be sucked by an innocent model! Honestly!

written by erayalan on 2013-03-07 #people #lomography #belair #lomoamigo #milos-gazdic