Light Impressions Exhibit Shows State of the Art in Mobile Phone Photography

When photographer Colleen Duffley launched a 24-hour New Year’s Eve iPhone photo competition for her Studio b creative venue in 2011, she sensed that the 8-megapixel camera in the new iPhone 4S might empower people worldwide to become photographic artists.

Since then, Colleen has created a remarkable “Light Impressions” traveling exhibit that has been documenting the emergence of mobile phone photography as an art movement.

Colleen considers mobile phone photography a “a pure art form” because “It’s more about the creativity than expensive gear or intricate technique.” The fourth edition of the Light Impressions exhibit is on display until February 22, 2015 at the Wynwood Building in the heart of Miami’s Wynwood Art District.

As in previous years, Colleen will be taking the exhibit to sites throughout the U.S. this spring and summer. The Light Impressions installation features 40 iPads mounted on a metal structure made from materials salvaged from some wreckage that Hurricane Opal left on the beach in 1995. Each iPad presents 13 of the best images submitted by a single mobile phone photographer.

As 13 images from each featured artist scrolls across the iPads at different rates, the Light Impressions exhibit makes a powerful statement about how people around the globe are using their mobile phone cameras a means of creative expression. LightImpressionsExhibit Colleen Duffley is a professional photographer who shoots, directs, produces creative concepts for magazines, commercials, and campaigns. She has been shooting people, places, and things around the globe for 25 years.

Colleen devised the concept for Light Impressions four years ago as a way to display the best images submitted to the New Year’s Eve iPhoneography photo challenge. One of her goals with that first iPhoneography challenge was to level the photo-competition playing field and demonstrate that all people could be creative photographers, even if they didn’t have expensive equipment or extensive training.

“The camera phone was the perfect tool to encourage people to be creative because everyone had one,” explains Duffley. “The camera phone gives us the ability and freedom to be creative 24/7.” She says viewing Light Impressions is like watching a fish tank. It’s mesmerizing: “It’s hard to walk away from it.”

“Mobile phone photography is still an emerging art form,” says Duffley. “People are going to be astounded when they see what is being done in this movement. All of the work displayed on the Light Impressions exhibit was done on a mobile phone camera — from the capture of the image to its processing and publishing. It’s really mind-blowing and wonderful.”

Duffley mounted the iPads in aged, weather-beaten metal that she discovered on the beach. As an art installation in itself, Light Impressions illustrates the timeless nature of photography as an art. While photography technology has changed over time, the magic of photography as an art form remains solid. Plus, she says “Mobile phone photography has a ‘found-art’ sensibility to it, and what better way to frame it than on repurposed materials?”

The first three editions of Light Impressions traveled to art fairs, museums, and events nationwide. It has been exhibited twice in Miami during the Art Basel week. In March, the new exhibit will be featured at Duffley’s new Studio b site in Florida and at a photography event in Washington, DC at the end of March.

When curating the 2015 Light Impressions exhibit, Duffley chose portfolios that represented a mix of styles, subject matter, and processing techniques. Some images illustrate the creative use of processing apps. Other images are shown almost exactly as the photographer shot them, with only minor tweaks. You can learn more about the artists, the images, and the apps they used in a special book Duffley produced for this year’s exhibit. LightImpressionsBook

Teaching Mobile Phone Photography

Duffley, who has taught university-level  courses in traditional photography, enjoys teaching classes in mobile phone photography. Within a few hours, students go from knowing very little about photography to being eager to experiment with all of shooting and processing tools that are literally at their fingertips.

One participant in a recent class was the editor of a magazine that publishes some of Duffley’s editorial photography. The editor has since invited Duffley to teach other members of the magazine’s editorial staff how to shoot better pictures with their mobile phones.

For her own iPhone photography work, Duffley prefers composing and shooting great images right in the camera. After spending hours editing the images she captures for editorial and advertising clients, she likens using an iPhone to using a Polaroid camera. When she frames a shot, she thinks about composition, lighting, form, texture, and line — all the things that have always gone into making a great photo, painting, or illustration.

She encourages students to “Take responsibility for what you’re shooting. When you have a good image to start with, you do what you want with it–the app is your oyster.”

Even though Colleen uses a high-end Canon DSLR for her commercial projects, she doesn’t treat her mobile phone camera with any less respect. In fact, some of the images she has shot with her iPhone have been published alongside the images she shoots with her DSLR.

The Resurgence of Studio b

As an editorial photographer, Colleen has traveled around the world, befriended fascinating people, and enjoyed some remarkable adventures. To enable others to experience the same kinds of unique experiences, Duffley founded Studio b in Alys Beach, Florida in 2009. She established it as a creative venue that would bring together the best of the best and the up-and-coming in photography, art, literature, fashion, design, music, and the culinary arts to educate and inspire artists and students. Studio b also hosts and co-sponsors events throughout the U.S. and in Italy, Ireland, and exotic locations around the globe.

Unfortunately, the timing for Studio b’s launch was less than ideal. Just as the economy was slowly starting to recover from the Great Recession of 2008, The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 temporarily decimated the tourism industry on the Gulf Coast.

So Duffley closed Studio b for a while and re-focused her energies on her photography business, Colleen Duffley Productions. Now that the economy and tourism industry are rebounding, she is preparing to re-launch Studio b in a different location on Florida’s Emerald Coast this spring.

On the Run Website

Colleen Duffley is also launching a new website, through which people can order metal prints of some of Colleen’s best iPhone images. When she travels on assignments for commercial projects, she carries her iPhone when she goes for long runs to relax and unwind. “When you run or bike, you get a different perspective on your surroundings,” said Duffley.She is calling her the website “On the Run” because “It’s just me capturing the world on the run.”

The Rising Quality of Mobile Phone Photography

As she curates each Light Impressions exhibit, Colleen Duffley said she is amazed to discover the many different ways people have come to the medium of mobile phone photography and embraced it as a tool of creative expression.

Over the years, the number and quality of entries she receives for the Light Impressions display has steadily risen. While some of that is due to technological advances in smartphone cameras and apps, Colleen says the community of mobile phone photographers is exceptionally collaborative and supportive of one another.

She said the artists featured in the Light Impressions exhibit are doing amazing things with their mobile phone photography: “It’s an amazing art form, and some people are making a good living selling prints of their mobile-phone photographs.”

RELATED POST

Ring in a Creative New Year with Studio b’s Camera Phone Event

LINKS

Studio b: Light Impressions-Profiles of the Featured Artists

Studio b Boutique: The Light Impressions On Tour Book

Colleen Duffley Productions

Facebook: Studio b.the Beach Studio b

See Award-Winning Images at Art of Photography Show

PHOTOGRAPHERS. The Art of Photography Show provides an excellent opportunity to have your best images viewed by some of the top photography curators in the nation.

The images for the 2013 Art of Photography Show were chosen by Julia Doran, curator of photography at the Portland Art Museum. Judges of previous competitions have come from the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.

The ninth edition of the Art of Photography Show opened this weekend at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park and runs through November 17, 2013. The winners of $10,000 in cash awards were announced at the show’s Opening Reception Gala on Saturday, October 12.

A $2,000 grant was awarded to Iranian photojournalist Hossein Fatemi for his image “Landmine Legacy.” Other grant winners included Simon Mulvaney for “Age,” Keith Sharp for “Curtain Call,” and Marilynn Waters for “The Conversation.”

The exhibition features 201 compelling works from amateur and professional photographers in the United States, Norway, Georgia, Israel, Denmark, Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, Latvia, Netherlands, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Iran, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Sweden, Albania, France, China, Spain, Canada, Turkey, Nigeria, Italy, Mexico, Indonesia, Namibia, Pakistan, and Singapore.

Photos by (left to right): David Eckels, Mark Esper, Klaus Kampert
Photos by (left to right): David Eckels, Mark Esper, Klaus Kampert

The Art of Photography Show was specifically designed to reach a large community of art collectors, luxury consumers, corporate heads, civic leaders, and other influential members of the San Diego community.

“Our goal is to provide as many tangible benefits as possible to exhibiting artists,” explains Steven Churchill, the show’s producer. “The cash awards, accolades, media coverage, and sales revenue that we provide artists who are selected by our acclaimed judge are substantial.”

Artists who traveled to San Diego for the opening weekend mingled with the other winners, met curator Julia Doran, and enjoyed a private after-party and museum outings.

All works at the exhibition are for sale, and sales staff familiar with the works mingled with the patrons at the Opening Reception, answering questions, and introducing artists. Additional events such as artist talks and mixers are planned throughout the show to call attention to works, sell more art, and enrich the community.

If you would like your work to be considered for next year’s event, check the website frequently for details on how and when to enter. Better yet, sign up for a free membership to The Art of Photography Show community.  You will receive emails about entry deadlines, special events, and new Art of Photography Show projects.

“We welcome submissions by any living photographer, young or old,” says Lisa Smith, associate producer of the show, “The photographs do not have to be from a newly created body of work. We are looking for works that are important to the artists from any time in their careers…We want to show the work that you feel most strongly about.”

LINKS

Grant Winners and All Images in 2013 Art of Photography Show

The Art of Photography Show

 

Artists Show Innovative Photography Techniques at Photokina

More than 150,000 photography experts, equipment manufacturers, and enthusiasts will  converge in Cologne, Germany from September 18 to 23, for the Photokina 2012: World of Imaging expo.  The biennial event is a leading international showcase for advances in imaging technologies and ideas.

One company that will be making a splash at the show is ILFORD, which makes professional-quality media for both inkjet printing and color photographic processes. In an event entitled “Imaging Without Boundaries,” Ilford is helping seven cutting-edge artists and organizations demonstrate techniques that challenge the boundaries of photography and image-making.

Each participant will have their own exhibit, in which they will show some of the results achieved from their innovative approaches to image capture and output.

“For over 130 years, Ilford has strived to provide photographers with the tools they need to achieve their creative vision,” explains Jane Dixon, Director of Global Marketing at Ilford. “With the Imaging Without Boundaries event at Photokina, we hope to show visitors that these tools continue to develop and that photography today is thriving as an art form.”

Imaging Without Boundaries is a collaboration between Ilford and Susanna Kraus and the IMAGO 1:1, the largest walk-in camera in the world. Imago 1:1 works as a giant photo booth, creating life-size portraits of the models who enter it. Prints from the camera are made with direct exposure onto Ilford media, coated especially for Imago 1:1 at the company’s site in Switzerland. At Photokina, the Imago 1:1 exhibit will showcase work by Imago 1:1 Owner and Art Director Susanna Kraus from Germany and Austrian photo artist Annegret Kohlmayer.

Some of the other visual artists and organizations participating in the “Imaging Without Borders” exhibit are described below.

Heino Heimann will exhibit large-format images made with his room-sized Chrome-Camera and directly exposed onto ILFOCHROME, the world’s only direct positive color material. Heimann built the Chrome-Camera at the Ilford site in Marly, Switzerland, where it will offer international artists and students the opportunity to experience working with direct positive exposure.

Design Academy Berlin will show how objects such as coffee cups or cupboards can be converted into pinhole cameras.  Using pinhole cameras made from everyday objects, a guerilla group of photographers and Design Academy students will explore Cologne taking pictures as they go. The pictures will be exposed onto Ilford direct positive black-and-white media and developed in a darkroom installed at their Photokina stand. The pictures are designed to show Photokina visitors that working with direct exposure in an innovative and playful way can dramatically change their perception of photography.

REALEYES will exhibit extraordinarily realistic 3D images that can be viewed on screen without the use of 3D glasses.  The process starts by creating 3D content that is rendered from 30,000 different viewing angles using a complex image grid made from Ilford photographic film. When transmitted from a screen, the displayed object appears to float as much as one meter in front of the screen, giving the viewer the perception that the object can actually be touched.

Michalis Papamichael will present a selection of imags he created by projecting the negative on very thick self-made paper. In his images, the bright becomes dark and vice versa. By exposing the picture in reverse, the image becomes something entirely new and each print becomes a one-of-a-kind object.

Visitors to photokina can learn more about the techniques featured in Imaging Without Boundaries during a series of seminars hosted by each of event participants.

LINKS

Press Release: Imaging Without Boundaries

Imaging without Boundaries Seminar Schedule

Photokina 2012

Database of New Products at Photokina 2012

Exhibition of Phoneography Art at Rebekah Jacob Gallery

An exhibition exploring the artistic possibilities of smartphone photography is now on display at the Rebekah Jacob Gallery in the Upper King Street district of Charleston, South Carolina. Entitled “Ways of Seeing: Phoneography,” the exhibition is further proof that phoneography is quickly gaining acceptance as a new fine arts medium.

Gallery owner Rebekah Jacob says phoneography exhibitions at galleries in other cities have been wildly popular, thanks to Facebook and other social media  New collectors also appreciate the more modest price points of the prints themselves.

“Stairs” by Nick Moss

As an art lover and experienced curator of fine photography, Rebekah Jacob is “fascinated by the immediacy and intimacy of phoneography, particularly the iPhone’s imaging quality.” She likes the fact that the technology is so accessible and that apps enable photographers to quickly express their vision in interesting ways.

The photographs included in the exhibit were selected by the curatorial staff of Rebekah Jacob Gallery following an open call for entries that closed June 3. The exhibition opened July 1 and runs through July 31.

“Sensation is Already Memory” by Katie Wichlinski

The prints are being sold for a uniform price of $200. If you can’t visit the gallery in Charleston, you can view and buy images from the exhibition at the store on the gallery’s website.

LINKS

Rebekah Jacob Gallery

Exhibition: Ways of Seeing-Phoneography

Store: Rebekah Jacob Gallery

Submit Entry to LA MobileArts Festival 2012 by July 15

Mobile art pioneers from around the world will show off their latest creations at the LA Mobile Arts Festival August 18-26 at Santa Monica Arts Studios (SMAS). The festival will be a fusion of art and technology, exhibited in 2,400 square feet of prime exhibition space in Arena 1 at SMAS.

Entries are being accepted from now until July 15, 2012.

“We welcome submissions for all the mobile arts—photography, sound- and video-based works, sculptural and performance art pieces,” said Daria Polichetti, co-founder of iPhoneArt.com (IPA) which is co-sponsoring the festival.  “We are thinking big – and encourage artists to investigate ways of going beyond traditional presentation methods.”

In addition to accepting proposals, IPA will also be reaching out to artists with ideas for solo and collaborative installations, said Polichetti. “We are looking at new printing techniques, three-dimensional installations, environmental design and much more. Funds will be made available for the projects we are most excited about.”

Santa Monica Art Studios is a major mecca for contemporary art and design in the Los Angeles area. This vast, historic airplane hangar was converted to a modern-day artists’ colony in 2003. Under its soaring roofline, artists of every persuasion come to share, create, and sell their works in studio and exhibition spaces.

At the festival, exhibiting artists will be able to set up their personal IPA iPrints store, through which they can sell prints not only to exhibit attendees but to also to art lovers worldwide.

The iPrints Store, currently in beta testing, was created by artists for artists. It will offer museum-quality printing and options such as mounting prints on eco-friendly bamboo panels. Artists will have full control over their work, including the ability to track limited and signed editions.

Some of the artists who will be taking part in this year’s festival can be seen on the 2011 IPA Mobile Grant page.

LINKS

LA Mobile Arts Festival: Submission Rules and Deadlines

The iPrints Store

iPhone Art’s 2011 Mobile Art Grant Recipients

 iPhone Art’s Manifesto

Hipstamatic Photos Output as Silver-Gelatin Prints

Can smartphone photographs be printed with legacy darkroom photo processing techniques? Absolutely.

From now until May 5, The Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston is displaying 95 images captured by 19 award-winning photojournalists from the photo agency VII.

Most of the images were shot with iPhones, using the Hipstamatic photo app, which allows photographers to mimic film and darkroom techniques. The images depict intimate familial moments, playful human gestures, and bird’s-eye views of urban and earthly landscapes. Several photos are bold, graphic, bursts of color and energy while others are ephemeral, meditative and painterly.

 

Photos by Lynsey Adario, David Monteleone, Erin Trieb, Gary Knight, Ed Kashi, Donald Weber

All of the 8 x 8-in. prints featured in the “iSee” exhibition were output by Digital Silver Imaging, a Boston-area professional photo lab that uses digital photographic laser technology, silver gelatin papers, and traditional black-and-white photo chemistry to make continuous-tone prints from digital files.

The black-and-white images in the images were produced as silver-gelatin fiber prints. The color images were produced as archival inkjet prints on Canson Platine Fiber Rag paper. Signed, small-edition prints are available for sale exclusively through Digital Silver Imaging.

The notes about the exhibition observe that the technical limitations associated with shooting and editing images on smartphones give photographers a sense of freedom, and adds intimacy and immediacy to photos: “The spontanaeity and unpredictability add to the fun.”

At 7 pm on Thursday evening, April 26, Steven Mayes, CEO of photo agency VII will be giving a gallery talk. Several of the exhibition photographers (Gary Knight, Ron Haviv, Ed Kashi and John Stanmeyer) will also be on hand to discuss the evolving relationship between art and technology.

LINKS

Griffin Museum of Photography

Print Editions from Digital Silver Imaging

About Digital Silver Imaging

“iSee: The Eyes of VII in in the Hands of Hipstmatic” Exhibition

VII photo agency

Gallery Calls for Entries to Phoneography Exhibit

Rebekah Jacob Gallery, in Charleston, South Carolina, is holding an open call for entries to their exhibition, “Ways of Seeing: Phoneography.” The exhibit will open on July 12, 2012 in their new space at 502 King Street. The installation will include up to 500 photographs selected by the curatorial staff of Rebekah Jacob Gallery.

In the press release, gallery owner Rebekah Jacob notes that “The most accessible of the visual arts, photography has been pushed even further into mainstream culture as the smartphone has become what noted photographer Annie Leibovitz calls ‘the snapshot camera of today.’ Although democratic in the opportunity to point, shoot, edit, and share, this innovation is rapidly transforming classical photograph into a revolutionary social phenomenon—and the newest artistic medium.”

“iPhone images are the intersection of creativity and technology,” says Jacob. “Although in its infancy as a medium now, I am fascinated by the immediacy and intimacy of iPhoneography, and expect that this method will soon be firmly embedded in the commercial marketplace.”

If you want your work considered for the exhibit, you may submit up to ten images taken and exclusively edited with an IOS device.

Digitally send submissions of square or rectangular JPEG files to: [email protected] by midnight on June 3, 2012. Each entry must include the photographer’s name, phone number, and email address. The complete submission requirements are posted on the gallery’s website: www.rebekahjacobgallery.com

Rebekah Jacob Gallery represents an international group of contemporary artists whose practices include painting, works on paper, photography and video. The Gallery’s emphasis is on modern art and the photography of the American South.

LINKS

About Rebekah Jacob Gallery

Ways of Seeing: Phoneography

RJG Call for Submissions: Submission Guidelines