Review: Lomography World Congress, Beijing 2004
Winner trips: LomoBMW competition
Events in the rest of the world
...ran full pelt from 28 June to 4 July. As lomographic conferences go, this one went with a major bang.

The Conference was easily the biggest so far, and so... In deference to the Chinese penchant for numbers, here's a statistical synopsis of a packed week of heavy duty Lomography in Beijing:

7 days, 52 programme points, 110 participants (including 22 Lomography Ambassadors and 7 team members) from all 7 continents, about 203 visitors from Beijing. On 2 July, a total of roughly 511 VIP guests at the opening of the biggest ever Great LomoBMW Wall: 70,000 photographs by 3,000 Lomographers, who participated in the International Lomo BMW X3 competition, from 57 different countries on 720 panels lining the magnificent circular open-air temple in Ritan Park (built in 1530). Around 108,000 photos taken and processed. Over 50 bars visited, 152 Peking Ducks consumed, 1,573 plates of food, 14,135 pairs of chopsticks used, 22,706 cups of tea and 888 bottles of Tsing Tao beer, not to mention 110 shots of Great Ergou Tou Liquor. 2,461 kilometres were covered by bus, taxi or on foot. 1 Lomo LCA was repaired. 2 LomoParties were partied and 110 kites were 'flown' on Tienanmien Square – although only a somewhat pathetic 4 actually stayed in the air. 12 love stories (but the details are still rolling in). 40,712 "ni-haos" and "yesyesyes/okayokays". 220 Mao caps (green and black). 15 hours sleep maximum in 7 days. 20 guides used, 307 taxi trips, 20 heated discussions with bus drivers. And a whopping 58 interviews were given. Plus the Portuguese football team had 110 supporters (this statistic has not been confirmed by the LomoDemographics Department and could be influenced by the relative size of the Portuguese faction present). 45 ping pong matches were played, 176 fake label bags, more than a couple of watches and just under 72m of gorgeous fabrics acquired, 72 massages enjoyed and 85 calligraphic strokes of the brush preceded 20,000 paces on the Great Wall. There followed 1,500 red challenge points and then 15 winners of the Lomography World Congress Challenge.

1 new Ambassador was inaugurated for the Lomography Embassy Beijing: Li Zhenhua (Lomographer, curator and connoisseur of contemporary Chinese art, creator of restaurants and galleries, culinary whiz, cosmopolitan, Beijing-lover, initiator and organiser of various festivals and events etc.). He is now taking-up his duties as our LomographicCommunity activator in mainland China.

But the list continues... the 15 new World Champion Lomographers received their laurels, 4,722 business cards were exchanged, a possible second Chinese Lomography embassy is in discussion for Shanghai and at least 101 new ideas for LomoProjects were born.

One special remark from the LomoTeam about BMW: That the biggest LomoWall ever happened in Beijing at all is thanks to the excellent people we worked with, for being loony enough to agree to go ahead and so making such an incredible project possible. During the last 12 months, we had to work a lot with BMW. We very much enjoyed BMW's innovative approach towards marketing, their ideas, the workflow etc. We developed the idea of the LomoBMWX3 international lomographic competition together, as we did the idea for the final presentation of the Great BMW X3 LomoWall in Beijing. Even if our technology level is quite the opposite to BMW's, we were able to see that we have many things in common: we treat our products well, we put a lot of effort into a whole world around our products, we want to create a lot of personal joy and fun with our products, and most of all: We love people all over the world! A big thank you to BMW as a company, and to the people we worked with!

Due to the sheer quantity involved, we're still processing all the incredibly positive feedback.
News has just come in that 50 of the extremely natty limited edition WorldCongress Colorsplash cameras have actually survived in their original packaging. To qualify to purchase one, use the code number you get by adding up ALL of the numbers (IN DIGITS, e.g. "10" but NOT "ten") in this newsletter.

For full details of the Congress programme
+ photo diary
+ the World Champions of Lomography
+ new photo uploads by the participants every day (members-shared Albums)
see: www.lomography.com/worldcongress2004
Four highly talented, lucky winners of the Lomography BMW X3 Snapshot Competition are just about to set off on their 2 week tours in a BMW X3. Two of them have already chosen their routes:

Marcelo from Brazil still hasn't got a co-pilot sorted out but he is hitting the road in a brand new BMW X3 on 26 July in Munich, capital of Bavaria in Germany. The exact details of his route have not been fixed but the plan is to drive to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, and back! On his way, the cameraman is planning to drop in on as many of his friends as possible scattered en route between the two towns, before having to hand over the snazzy car and his Lomographic report and head home for Brazil.

Kat is an illustrator living in England. Together with Fred and equipped with a BMW X3 and Lomographic cameras, she is planning to cruise Australia for a fortnight. Brisbane to Cairns along the Queensland coast: the Great Barrier Reef, the breathtaking Queensland outback, Frazer Island, the biggest sand island in the world and Magnetic Island. The documentation of their tour is bound to be knockout, and they're all set to include the detailed story with a photo diary as online fodder for the image-starved.

The two other winners haven't revealed their plans yet. But all 4 final routes and travel journals will be going online. And at the end a jury will be selecting the Lomographic Champion Supremo from among the intrepid voyagers.

www.lomography.com/bmwx3
1. Dubai: The Lomographic Embassy Dubai presents and celebrates the first ever LomoWall shot and produced in Dubai; Five Green, Garden Home, Oud Metha, PO Box 73617, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 13 July to 9 August.

2. Canada: The Toronto Lomography Masterplan Competition and Exhibition Part 1: 19-30 July
In and around Queen street, intersections, cross streets, street vendors, signs, regulars. Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M6J 1J6

3. Austria: The Lomographic Society and WWF (Worldwide Fund For Nature) introduce the first Austrian LomoRiverSwimmingDay on 18 July. Bathing like your grandmas did, shooting competition with the Frogeye camera.

Details at www.lomography.com/events
Contact the Lomography SpinDoctor Amira Bibawy at spindoctor@lomography.com