I’m fed up with iPhone accessory manufacturers. I’m fed up with app developers. I’m fed up with YouTubers and influencers. I’m fed up with bloggers and social media mavens. I’m fed up with many of my iPhone photography colleagues. I’m even fed up with some Apple executives.
Stop. Please. Argh.
Stop trying to make the iPhone camera a younger, inferior sibling to conventional cameras.
Since when did dedicated, traditional cameras—mirrorless and DSLRs—become the ultimate endgame in photography?
Stop doing everything in your power to mimic and imitate traditional cameras.
iPhone cameras can stand on their own as cameras. And, I might add, in more than a few instances, they can easily outshine their conventional predecessors.
I am sick and tired of hearing that, practically everywhere, people talk about making their iPhone cameras just like big, dedicated, conventional cameras.
You are trying to turn Apples into Oranges.
I have the right to be fed up more than most. I’ve spent decades behind cameras of all types, from film to digital, and now, mobile. My career has taken me across the world, shooting with some of the most advanced photography tools available. I have seen the evolution of photography firsthand, from the darkroom to digital post-processing, from manual focus to AI-driven computational photography. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve lived through the transitions, and I recognize when a shift is more than just a trend—it’s a revolution.
When photography was just getting started, the Pictorialists came along and tried to make photography look, feel, and act like painting so it would get the attention and credit it deserved.
It didn’t work.
It would never have worked.
Photography stood right on its own beside painting. History has clearly proven this point to the world.
The same is true today: iPhone cameras are not the bastard, inferior children of conventional cameras.
They are, all on their own, a wonder of wonders.
The Pictorialist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was filled with well-intentioned artists who felt photography needed to be “elevated” by making it resemble traditional fine art, particularly painting. They introduced soft-focus lenses, painterly compositions, and elaborate printing techniques to mimic the textures and tones of oil paintings and etchings. They believed that for photography to be taken seriously, it had to conform to the artistic traditions of the past.
They wanted to squeeze photography into another art form
But photography had other ideas.
Instead of leaning into an older visual language, photography found its own voice. It became a medium that could document the world in ways painting never could. It embraced sharpness, spontaneity, and the authenticity of the moment.
Fast forward to today, and we’re witnessing history repeat itself.
Traditional camera loyalists and manufacturers want iPhones to behave more like mirrorless and DSLR cameras. The accessory industry churns out gear to transform iPhones into something they are not. App developers pile on software to mimic DSLR functionalities. YouTubers and influencers perpetuate the narrative that an iPhone can only be a “real” camera if you accessorize and tweak it into oblivion.
It’s all nonsense.
The iPhone is not a DSLR. It’s not a Mirrorless camera. and it never will be. And guess what? That’s a good thing.
Comparing iPhones to conventional cameras is looking backward, not forward.
An iPhone is a camera that can stand, proudly, on its own. Period.
Not an “alternative.” Not a “secondary” tool. Not an “entry-level” device. A camera in its own right. And in many ways, the iPhone is not just keeping pace with conventional photography—it is setting the pace.
Think about it:
The iPhone has revolutionized accessibility. Everyone has a world-class camera in their pocket.
Computational photography allows for images that traditional cameras simply cannot capture without post-processing.
AI-powered enhancements make photography more intuitive, not more complicated.
Real-time editing tools allow for an unprecedented level of immediacy in storytelling.
Portability and discretion enable photographers to shoot in places where larger cameras would be intrusive or impractical.
We are not in an era where we need to make iPhones “more like” traditional cameras. We are in an era where iPhones are redefining what a camera even is.
I don’t need my iPhone to act like a DSLR any more than early photographers needed their cameras to act like paintbrushes.
And to the critics, curators, and gatekeepers who continue to dismiss mobile photography as somehow “less than” conventional photography—open your eyes.
The world is moving forward.
Long live iPhone photography!
Click.
Jack.
