Wednesday 24 March 2010

Unique Lens

A U.S. Marine searches an Afghan farm compound in Marjah. Image © David Guttenfelder/Associated Press

The creative potential of the iPhone camera and the various photo apps available has been a pleasant surprise. I never really expected a mobile phone camera could have so much potential for creating striking photographs. It's not just the camera though, the iPhone photo apps are the major ingredient that make the smart phone, the flexible creative tool it is today. As you may have seen from this blog and my Facebook page, i use the iPhone's picture taking function a heck of a lot. I love it and it seems I'm not the only one.

David Guttenfelder, a photographer with the Associated Press, has put together a wonderful gallery of 'Polaroid' images taken with his iPhone while embedded with the U.S Marines near Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province. Sadly the photographer doesn't mention the iPhone application he used,  i did initially suspect that it could be my own personal favourite Lo-Mob, but apparently, according to the British Journal of Photography, it was an app called shakeitphoto. Not that it matters, I'm immensely impressed with the images David Guttenfelder has created - the photos ooze a wonderfully distinctive visual diary feel that beautifully captures the day-to-day activity of troops living, working and fighting in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan iPhone 'Polaroid' gallery is well worth a visit and can be found HERE.

2 comments:

kat evans said...

THAT was a fantastic find
Rich! I adore the look of
Lo-Fi photography and what
he took with his iPhone
blew me away. I guess the
saying, "Your camera doesn't
matter" holds very true here.

P.S. I'm totally digging your
collection of Lo-Mob photos. ;0)

Richard Flint Photography said...

The photos are superb and it's a clever use of the iPhone app. The images wouldn't have had as much impact if they had been straight forward digital shots from the phone.

i think using a lo-fi approach for photography on the iPhone is great. The camera lens ain't as good as my Nokia 5800's Carl Zeiss, but the mass of superb photo apps for the iPhone more than makes up for that.

I totally agree with you about the snapper being the important one. A couple of photographers i follow on two photoblogs take mind numbingly terrible photos with the best gear available (remember the one i mentioned last year Kat;-) It's not the gear... it's the person.

Thanks for the lo-mob comments Kat... more to come ;o)