“I have never, in my photographic career and life, since 1975, been more emotionally attached, to the body of work I have and am creating, than I am today, thanks to my beloved iPhone cameras”.
It’s a photographic love affair that I’m not ashamed of.
No, like any camera, my iPhone cameras, all of them, are not perfect, far from it. But given the subjects, scenes, and scenarios I shoot, in life, as I move and meander through the rituals, routines, and rhythms of my day-to-day existence, they are as perfect as it gets for me.
My photographic philosophy, born out of the last decade of experience, is that “art grows out of the heart”.
You have to be emotionally connected to and invested in, your photography, to consistently create remarkable and memorable work.
Otherwise, you are only creating work that is technically rich but soulfully bankrupt?
As I look back to my own popular conversion to iPhone photography, on the island of Barbados, at the Crane Resort, 7.01AM, February 18, 2011, I can’t help but notice an autobiographic change that happened in my own photography on that game-changing morning.
The quote “Don’t show me what it looks like, show me what it feels like” is attributed to the American poet and writer Toni Morrison. Her words emphasize the importance of evoking emotions and experiences through art, rather than merely depicting visual appearances.
It’s a powerful reminder to seek deeper connections beyond the surface level.
This is exactly how I move through life with my iPhone cameras.
For some deep, cosmic, magical reason, when I have an iPhone camera in my hand, quite unlike my experience shooting with Dedicated cameras, I am, seemingly, full to the brim and brink of emotions, feelings, passions, introspections, warmth, excitement, fervency, and sensation.
I use my iPhone cameras and my photography experience to connect to life, myself, others, and the world around me.
This pocket camera isn’t a distraction but a bridge to another world of artistry, poetry, and creativity.
I have come what appears to be full circle in my journey of living a photographic life.
“Photography is a response that has to do with the momentary recognition of things. Suddenly you’re alive. A minute later there was nothing there. I just watched it evaporate. You look one moment and there’s everything, the next moment it’s gone. Photography is very philosophical” Joel Meyerowitz
I would argue that if you are not emotionally connecting to the photographs you are making, you are more of a button-pusher than a verse-maker.
Apple has built iPhone cameras, from the beginning, and from the ground up, with the technology being quiet and seamless under the hood, so you and me, the photographers, could focus on what truly matters in photography—making moments and expressing art.
Click.
Jack
