untitled (minimalism with an iPhone)

By Adrien Leyronas

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

Photo by Robert Herman, 2011

Bubble Girl

By Robert Herman,

Grand Cayman Islands, 2011

 

iPhone Photography Awards 2013

Here are the winners of the 7th edition of the  iPhone Photography Awards:

First place: Holly Wesley, Argyll, Scotland Second place: Brolin Roney, Indian Holi (celebration of colors) festival at the Spanish Fork in Utah

Third place: Bob Weil, Newport Beach, California, “The Girl in the Snowstorm” taken in St Petersburg, Russia First place, Animals: Jon Resnik, Brooklyn, New York First place, Still Life: Daniel Felipe Fonseca, Porto Salvo, Portugal First place, Flowers: Britta Hershman, Virginia Beach, VirginiaFirst place, Seasons: David Rondeau, Stoneham, Massachusetts First place, Travel: Jenny Friedman, New York City, “The Sweeper” taken in MoroccoFirst place, People: Kim Hanskamp, Barcelona, Spain First place, Architecture: José Luis Barcia Fernandez, Madrid, Spain First place, Landscape: Maegan Moore, Charlottesville, VirginiaFirst place, Lifestyle: Luyu Hung, Berkeley, California, photo of a woman on a surfboard in the canals of Venice Beach, California First place, Food: Massimo Calogero, Brescia First place, Trees: Mark Simone of Vancouver, CanadaFirst place, News/Events: Mohammed Radhi, Tubli, Bahrain First place, Children: Yvonne Naughton, La Conner, Washington First place, Nature: Tomas Stankiewicz Baldassarri, Margine Coperta, Tuscany, Italy First place, Sunset: Angel Jiminez, New YorkFirst place, Others: Lisa Jay, Sydney, Australia

Carmella

Photo by Helen Breznik

Staff photographer for iPhone dude

On 30 May, when arriving at work, Chicago Sun-Times 28 full-time staff photographers found out they did not work there anymore. The decision was unforseeable and immediately effective. One of the laid off staffers was John H. White, Pulitzer Prize winner for feature photography in 1982, praised for his “consistently excellent work on a variety of subjects.”

The newspaper released a statement revealing its plans of using only freelancing photographers, and suggesting that video becomes more important in news reporting than photography…

In the next couple of days, editorial employees were hurried up into taking an ‘iPhone Photography Basics’ class:

It looks that Chicago Sun-Times trades off professional photographers for iPhone dudes. There is no doubt which are the losses.

Photoshop for iPhones!

I’m super über excited for this huge step in phonetography:

Remember that last year Adobe officially launched Photoshop Touch for the iPad and Android-powered tablets? It was priced at $10, and its features included layers, selection tools (refine edge is here!), adjustments, and filters, as well as a new Scribble Select, pretty handy if you needed to keep and remove elements of an image. Unfortunately, the max resolution was of 1600X1600, which didn’t bring it any stars.

Well, Adobe just announced that Photoshop Touch is now available for Android and iOS smartphones, as well as for the iPod touch. What does it offer you on top of the previous version:

• work on files up to 12 megapixels with higher resolution capabilities (don’t bitch – Adobe announced is pretty proud of this!);
• use your mobile device camera to fill an area on a layer;
• sync files to Adobe Creative Cloud™ and open them in Photoshop to see your layers.

Apparently, this is what you could do with a smart phone and the Photoshop Touch, but I’d take it with a grain of salt:

..or a whole bag of salt, as a matter of fact:

But for only $5 – that’s the price of this babe! – I think I might go wild and take my chances 🙂

At the end of day, there are amazing artists out there who take unique photos with Instagram – that so-called pros with last generations of Nikons and Canons are not even hoping to capture. Who knows what they will come up with now?!?

2012 in Phonetography

Anton Kawasaki writes a very comprehensive piece on the significance of 2012 in phonetography for Digital Photography Review Connect, “2012: The Year in Mobile Photography”, recapping the year’s milestones:

• mobile photography connected with the mainstream media;
• it penetrated the art world;
• phonetography communities and creative projects developed;
• Instagram exploded;
• mobile photography was monetized;
• mobile phone cameras got high tech;
• Hipstamatic went big;
• Hurricane Sandy smart phone photo of Ben Lowy made it to TIME Magazine cover.

Here is one of my favourite phone shoot of the past year:

“Untitled” by Richard “Koci” Hernandez

Urban Dictionary on Phonetography & Phonetographers

Phonetography:

Photos taken on a cameraphone. Often of lary nights out in kebab stores, of people committing lewd acts, or hot women in the street.

“Ahhh see… Right see the thing that’s got it all f*cked up now is camera-phones.
How the hell am I supposed to be able to do a line in front of complete strangers, when I know they’ve
all got cameras?”

Last nights’ phonetography highlighted the fact that the “hottie” mike was with was actually a mingrat.

Phonetographer:

One who is always taking photos with the camera in their phone. Most often artsy photos that end up posted on social network sites like Facebook.

Guy: Hey, Jackie is such a phonetographer!
Girl: I know! Did you see the ones she took last night? I think I want her to phonetograph my wedding!

Phonetography Art Calendar

Whether or not you have already purchased your calendar for the new year, I suggest to check out Dianne Poinski’s 2013 Calendar.

Each month features a new image of a beauty and brittleness that would make you think it was captured on traditional photographic film, but they were all taken with… an iPhone!