Video | From Holga to Diana: iconic Hong Kong toy photo cameras that sparked a worldwide retro aesthetic trend

Two Hong Kong-made toy cameras gathered a cult following and set off a worldwide aesthetic trend. The Holga photo camera appeared in the 1980s when the city was a global manufacturing centre for plastic toys. While Holga production only ran between 1982 and 2015, its photographic aesthetic became wildly popular and gave rise to a spiritual successor, the Diana, another cheap camera which was made in Hong Kong in the 60s and 70s.

Although few photographers went as far as Billy Ka Ho (owner of Time Fly Slow With Film) and Martin Cheung in using the technically obsolete film cameras, vintage filters in smartphones and apps have helped make the look produced by the toy cameras of a bygone Hong Kong era one of the most-in-vogue online styles of the 2010s.