Colleagues. Co-creators. Collaborators
So much of my iPhone photography is second nature, reflexive, and automatic.
It just comes naturally to me.
Click.
It wasn’t always like this. I had to pay my dues, in sweat, blood, and tears, like everyone else.
But honestly, if there was a single game-changer in how my iPhone photography, today, looks and feels today, it is, unquestionably, not because of modern technology, although that certainly plays a critical part in this picture, but because of my long-standing background in photography, as historian and practitioner, long before I ever picked up my iPhone.
I’m a traditional photographer using non-traditional tools.
My heart still belongs to another time and space.
Still, even today, the iPhone camera, in its purest form, is a box with a hole in it. Nothing more, nothing less.
Yes, even today, I continue to be all-out passionate and intent about the fundamentals and foundations of photography-light, color, design, exposure, focus, and white balance.
I carry a soft spot, always, in my heart, for photographers, here, on this feed, like me, that have traveled this photography highway, the old fashion way-manual settings, film processing, darkroom magic, the making and showing of traditional portfolios, publishing in print, self-validation, the list goes on.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone brothers and sisters. I do.
But if I were on a desert island, with limited space and invites, I would extend them to my peers of age and wisdom-those of another era.
For we, because of our common experience and lexicon, share the wisdom of photographic ages that few will ever quite know or understand.
I’m sure that some here will think, these thoughts, come from a cranky curmudgeon, pining over the ole’ days.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
Today, 2023, is the greatest time in history to be alive and a photographer!
Whether iPhone photographers know it or not, they stand on the shoulder of photographic giants and geniuses of history past.
To all my brothers and sister in arms, that understand, full well, the sentiments I speak of, thank you for your part in my journey, our journey, and the world’s journey.
I am grateful. You have taught me much. History will remember us.
Click.
Jack
