Want to witness an truly innovative photojournalism and reporting initiative? Look no further than Basetrack, an experimental effort to report on the deployment of Marines in southern Afghanistan.
Visit Basetrack, and soon you’ll be viewing photos from photographers embedded with the First Battalion, Eighth Marines — yes, including many iPhone images — and hearing the stories of the Marines in their own voices. As the Basetrack website notes, “Basetrack’s forward team is supported by a network of technologists, analysts, artists, and journalists, working around the clock, from around the world, to connect over a thousand Marines and Corpsmen to their families, and to connect a broader public to the longest war in US history.”
I contacted one of the photographers behind Basetrack, Teru Kuwayama, and spoke to him about the project and his use of the iPhone camera to take photos for it. Here’s my interview with Teru. You can also view a slideshow of his images.
What made you decide to use the iPhone rather than a more traditional camera to capture images?
Maybe this is counterintuitive, but I wanted to demonstrate that it isn’t about technology, and that journalism (whatever that means anymore) doesn’t require “professional” gear. That said, I’ve been pretty amazed at how well the iPhone works — at least as a camera, I’ve never used it as a phone — but as cameras go, it might be the best piece of gear I’ve ever used.
What do you like about the iPhone camera?
The touchscreen design makes it more dustproof than any professional camera I know of, and it’s certainly the most discreet camera I’ve ever used. Most of the Marines I’m with have never seen me holding a “camera” and probably don’t even know I’m a photographer. With a pocket-sized backup cell, I’ve got enough battery power to operate for a week, and after three months of using it as my primary camera, I’ve barely made a dent in the hard drive. Throw in audio, video, geotagging, and apps that do 90% of the “darkroom” work — for someone coming from the analog world, it’s somewhere between science fiction and magic.
What are some of your reasons for using Hipstamatic as the photography app?
I’ve been using unconventional film cameras like Holga and Polaroid cameras for more than 15 years. The Hipstamatic app brings the same approach to the digital realm.
A number of other war photographers (Damon Winter of the New York Times, David Guttenfelder of the AP) have also used an iPhone to shoot images in Afghanistan? Any thoughts on why this is?
From a mechanical standpoint, photojournalists don’t get any points for originality. They’re not like painters, sculptors, or musicians, who routinely experiment with making their own instruments and media. For photographers, just about all our gear, from the cameras, to the computers, to the software, is all generic, off-the-shelf technology. For at least a couple of generations, just about every working photojournalist used a 35mm Leica – it was considered “revolutionary” and “liberating” because it was so compact and lightweight compared to previous models. The last generation of photojournalists suffered through the digital beta-testing period where cameras got radically heavier and more expensive, and came with truckloads of peripheral gear that cost them decades of mobility, and jacked up the barriers to entry. The iPhone is basically the Leica of digital photography, although the Leica’s mobility and utility are quaint in comparison. Maybe it would be better to say the iPhone is the AK-47 of digital photography. Bottom line, professional photographers are just starting to catch up with the amateurs.
Anything else you would like to share about the project or your use of the iPhone camera and Hipstamatic?
There aren’t too many people who are as technically inept as I am – my three-year-old daughter figured out how to swipe and navigate faster than I did. I’m not pimping the iPhone or the Hipstamatic, they’re just so ubiquitous that even I’ve heard of them. I’m quite sure there’s a world of devices and apps that I don’t know of, so I’d invite your readers to check out Basetrack and give me advice on other stuff we can use.
Where to Find Basetrack
Teru’s Projects and Websites
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