TEN AND ONE Residency Week Recap: Edward Conde (@edwardconde)

It's been over a month since I left Vienna after spending a fantastic week with all the 2016 TEN AND ONE winners. Looking back at the photos I captured brings a smile to my face as I remember the fun memories of the experience I had with my fellow Lomographers.

The trip started with a super long flight and train ride from Los Angeles to Vienna, Austria. Once I arrived I was greeted by Ella (@ellakoppensteiner) and Monty (@montagu) at the Bondage Flat! (In honor of Roberto's (@robertofiuza) favorite death metal band Bondage Goat Zombie). We connected with the rest of group and talked about our favorite subject which is photography. The night ended back at the Bondage Flat with everyone showing off what gear they brought for the week. I have to say that the guys came ready to shoot!

On Sunday, we walked to the restaurant where we were to have brunch with the rest of the group. Along the way to the restaurant, we stopped and photographed the sights and ourselves. Photographers instantly became models! After lunch, we went on a LomoWalk around Vienna. I honestly couldn't say where we were, I just remember clicking shots and making sure I knew the person next to me. The day ended with a dinner and more photography talk!

The following days were filled with scheduled and impromptu LomoWalks around the city. Just imagine more than ten Lomo-nerds walking and shooting the streets of Vienna. I was often in awe of the people I was with and just seeing their creativity at work. One of our morning breakfast together turned into a multiple mini-workshops. Monty, showed the group how to retrieve a film leader from a film canister using another film roll. Ray (@raywychin), showed us how to use his film retrieving tool to pull out the lead. Yoshi (@gocchin) explained how he loads a roll of film into his LC-A for multiple exposures so that the frames line up correctly. Every day there was always someone showing the group something new. It was truly a learning experience from the start.

Ella set up some fantastic tours at Kunst Haus Wien, Angewandte Wien, Hier Magazine HQ, and Lomography HQ. I was excited to visit HQ to see where it all began and what new products are coming out. The tour was insightful and informative about the current product line and future releases. I enjoyed great conversations with everyone there. You can tell that everyone at HQ was really excited to have us there. Every night ended with dinner and drinks then back to the Bondage flat for more photo talk before going to sleep. We took an amazing day trip to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. The train ride offered some different scenery of the country that I had not seen before and exploring Bratislava was one of the highlights of the trip.

Earlier that week Ella, had mentioned that we would all have a chance to shoot a concert during our stay. I was really excited about getting a chance to photograph a band in a live setting. Roberto and I were teamed up to shoot the "My Baby" concert. I had mentioned to the group that My Baby was a country band, boy was I wrong! When the day came to shoot the concert, Robert, Monty, Raymond, Yoshi and myself headed out to the concert.

The lighting was low so I loaded my cameras and pushed the film! I got a chance to test out the Neptune Convertible Art Lens System with my Fuji X-T1 and Roberto's Canon EF to Fuji X adapter. I loved the ability to change the lenses quickly. I even got a sneak peek at a new lens that is in the works from Lomography! What a nice kit to have for the concert. With front row access to the band, I shot them with all of my available photographic tools.

I had never heard of My Baby before, but the music was free-spirited, energetic and spiritual! The crowd was really into the music and the whole vibe at the Fluc Wien was electric! When the concert was over, I had a pocket-full of exposed film and several hundred images shot with the Neptune Convertible Art Lens System!

The next few days we all worked hard on putting the LomoWall together. We had a lot of fun taking pictures, cracking jokes, listening to all kinds of music including Death Metal! We stayed late into the night putting our ideas down on paper and then laying down the photos on the panels. It was truly a group effort by all of us and those that brought their companions. By Saturday, we had the LomoWall up at the Kunstlerhaus Museum. Then, the group walked around the area snapping more photos (of course) until we found a restaurant to have a quick bite before the exhibition.

There was a very nice reception to LomoWall we put up at the museum. I was super tired from the long fun week. So many awesome memories, experiences, and photos. New friendships that will last a lifetime. The morning I left the Bondage Flat I posted this image on Instagram.

As I stated over and over again, this was an incredible experience. I think Lomography has something great starting here with these Artist Residency. A great way to get community members to meet each other and share, share, share! So many tips and tricks I brought back home that I am going to try out myself. The greatest part of the Residency Week is that analog photography brought us all together. A medium that was pronounced dead when digital became the medium of choice for photography is very much alive and thriving. Lomography is one of the leading forces for this and for that I thank them for the opportunity to be part of the first Artist Residency week.

See more of Edward Conde's photographs from the My Baby concert, LomoWalk in Vienna, and Naschmarkt Fleamarket.

written by Edward Conde on 2018-01-07 #lomowalk #ten-and-one #10and1 #10and1-vienna