Confession: the more I make pictures with the iPhone, the more I like it. The more I like it, the more I use it and the more I use it, the more I think I could do without my "real" cameras (if I had to, but I don't, so it's not gonna happen).
However, I have discovered that I really like the "snapshot" look of my made-and-processed-on-the-iPhone pictures. This should not have come as a surprise inasmuch as I have always followed a somewhat hybrid snapshot aesthetic motif in my "serious" picture making - that is, in true snapshot fashion anything and everything are referent fodder for my picture making and, on the face of it (the print), to many viewers' eyes, my pictures appear to display a disregard for conventional composition nicety.
That written, my pictures, especially when presented in print form, have rather "formal" quality due, in no small part, to their "perfect" color balance and dynamic range. And, to the visually perceptive eye, they do display, independent of the depicted referent a not unsophisticated arrangement of colors, shapes and tones across the 2D surface of a print.
Consequently, when my prints are hung on a wall, viewers tend to approach them in a formal / thoughtful / "serious" manner. While the depicted referent might appeal to them, viewers are also looking for those qualities which declare the prints as "art". A "serious" matter, that."
All of the above written, I am seriously enamored by the fact that my the new snapshot pictures give the appearance of informal / not "serious" picture making. Pictures dominated by the depicted referent and seemingly without regard for picture making perfection. Pictures which invite an informal and non-serious viewing approach on the part of viewers of the pictures because they are "just snapshots" and snapshots are made without any artistic intent or pretentions, right?
Wrong, at least in the case of my the new snapshot pictures. A lot of work (and thought) goes into making them look like "just snapshots"; the seemingly haphazard manner in which the pictures are made, processing which includes effects to introduce "imperfections", the addition of an amateurish polaroid-like print border and, of course, the snapshoter's apparent impulsive and indiscriminate choice of subject matter.
All done with intent of making art.
