Interview: Ben Lowy talks to the New York Times about iPhone photography
There’s a terrific interview at the New York Times Lens blog with Ben Lowy, who’s made a mark in photojournalism with his images from Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere (and for his defense of iPhone photography). As the article notes, “For the last four years, he has been ardently defending cellphone photography on Twitter, Facebook, his Tumblr and in real life. As he sees it, shooting with cellphones and Hipstamatic is no different than picking black-and-white film over color or deciding to shoot with a Holga camera instead of a large-format camera. The decisions are executed in the camera before the image is exported.”
In the interview, Lowy addresses some of the criticism of iPhone photography, especially in photojournalism: “I think there are a lot of purists out there. It’s just like, when people didn’t accept Eggleston’s color photography and said you can’t do art with color. They couldn’t move on and were unwilling to accept this as a new form of communication, of art. I think that’s the same thing with iPhone photography. The idea of using a tool that everyone and their brother and their mother has can make some people feel less exclusive. You know, art is only that rare stuff that certain people in certain circles can get and that rarity is what makes it art.”
Yes, that’s what Lowy says in his interview with the Times.
It will apparently be a “lens and film combo where it’s pure and fairly straightforward,” Lowy says. The combo will apparently “turn back the saturation a little bit, have the clarity up, a little bit of a grain and some contrast, but not enough that you lose the highlights.” Lowy adds, “I found that a lot of time, you lose the highlights with an iPhone. And that’s it except maybe a slight vignette.”
Very useful.
I should cross-check this with my own list of the best apps, which I’m planning to update soon.
“I like contrasts, paradoxes and extremes. That’s why I love to combine discordant — if not opposite — concepts within my images.”
This is a fun interview with EyeEm’s CEO. Definitely check out EyeEm if you want an Instagram alternative (or just want to experiment with other options for mobile photo filters/sharing).
To be honest, that headline is something of a joke. Ever since the Facebook acquisition of Instagram, there have been scores of articles on Instagram alternatives, from media outlets from Macworld to the Huffington Post (and far beyond). I’m guessing lots of people are now discovering the world of iPhone photography beyond Instagram.
Well, here’s another quasi-list of options: my own list of the 100 best iPhone photography apps. Instagram is on there, of course, and so I guess it’s something of a list of 99 Instagram alternatives. I’m not leaving Instagram, but some other apps to consider include Path, Hipstamatic, ShakeItPhoto, PictureShow, and many more.
Want other lists?
Here are some of them:
Macworld: 7 Instagram alternatives for iOS
VentureBeat.com: 5 Instagram alternatives for those worried about Facebook privacy issues
Shiny Shiny: 12 Instagram alternatives
New book: “Instaburb: 50 Images of Australian Suburbia”
Love the look of this. Learn more at the Instaburb website.
Pocketstock is seeking an iPhoneographer for a summer stock-photo road trip
Wow, this sounds like a lot of fun.
Some of the details: ”As the Pocketstock iPhoneographer you will be paid to head out on a road trip across America. It’s just you, your iPhone and the open road. So, as well as a having a driving license and knowing your iPhone back to front, you will need to be a master of all photo apps and iPhoneography techniques. As well as documenting your trip with your iPhone and updating a daily written and video blog, you will also lead “Photo Walks” with iPhoneography groups at designated points on your visit and be able to talk in an engaging way to the media about iPhoneography, the road trip and Pocketstock.”
Instagram/Facebook deal is the lead story in The New York Times
“Boom in Photo Sharing” is the subhead.
The story notes the concerns of Instagram users: “Soon after the news broke, many Instagram fans began voicing their displeasure on the service and on Twitter and Facebook. Some, like Paul Ahlberg, seemed upset that Facebook would have access to their personal information. ‘I liked Instagram when it was stupid pictures and filters, not a Facebook data collector,’ he wrote on Twitter.”
What I See Now is all about tips, resources, and news about iPhone photography (and the iPhone camera). I'm Allan Hoffman, the author of Create Great iPhone Photos.
You can buy my book about iPhone photography from Amazon. You can also tweet about it:
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