Pixels At An Exhibition—The Art of the iPhone

As some of you know, Christian Peacock, a local photographer and a great friend to the iPhoneographic community, asked me to address the monthly meeting of the Artistic Photographers of America at the Apple store in downtown San Francisco last night, July 8.

The last slide.

A few people have inquired how it went, so here is a quick report.

We had a fairly good turnout and gathered more people around as the presentation proceeded, due to the delicious nature of the images being projected on the big screen.

I opened the presentation with a discussion of the various iPhones, bit of the history of the online community, the first gallery show of iphoneographic art that we put together in February of this year, and the subsequent OakBook show, and how rapidly and amazingly the art has been evolving since the Giorgi show.

For a flickr feed of almost the whole presentation, go here. Thank you Steve Rhodes for this. Read the rest of this entry →

iPhoneography's Leading Man, Jaime Ferreyros

We are happy to present our fourth in the series of artist interviews here on Pixels At An Exhibition. This week, Jaime Ferreyros, who was also one of our first featured artists.

KB: Please tell us a little about yourself – where you live, if you hail from Earth, anything like that. Whatever you feel like sharing that isn’t covered in the questions below.

JF: I was Born in Lima, Peru but started traveling and living around the world from the get-go. My father was a Peruvian Ambassador, so I called San Francisco, Tokyo, Lima, Rome and Panama home as we moved from city to city. Since 1992 I call Miami, Fl. Home, living with my wife, 3 kids and “Ramona” our yorkie.

KB: How long have you been shooting pictures with your iPhone?

JF: My wife bought me the 3GS iPhone a year ago for fathers day. Twelve-hundred and eighty-eight pictures  later, I’ve taken pictures with it everyday.

KB: How often do you work on your art?

JF: Everyday! Read the rest of this entry →

Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man

Gordon Fraser has contributed a striking collection of images to Pixels At An Exhibition since we first put out a call for submissions last December. Several of his pieces were voted into the Giorgi Gallery show by the jury: a nude, one of his striking geometric abstracts, a beautiful black-and-white beach shot. In the recent OakBook gallery show, his ethereal shot of Stonehenge garnered lots of attention. His work—the figurative, the geometric, the architectural, the street shots taken in the moment—invariably demonstrates a keen eye for composition and form. His use of apps is impeccable: we barely notice them.

He recently published a book, iNOLOGY, an overview of his iPhoneographic work, which he talks about here. We thank him for both his taking the time to answer our questions and for his generous contributions to our communal gallery here at Pixels.

KB: Please tell us a little about yourself – where you live, if you hail from Earth, anything like that. Whatever you feel like sharing that isn’t covered in the questions below.

GF: I am a Scotsman, born and brought up in Glasgow but now living in the south of England, near London. My day job is in the audio visual industry where I run a small consultancy and distribution business. That job takes me all over the UK and sometimes even further which is great. I am married and my wife is a writer, and is extremely supportive of my photography. We have collaborated on a couple of projects now, she edited a book I did and I, and some photographer friends, helped her out by organising a shoot of a scene from the novel she is writing. Evidence here.

KB: How long have you been shooting pictures with your iPhone?

Nude #2

GF: My first few mobile shots were not taken with my own iPhone. I had just replaced my old phone with a shiny new Nokia N97 but I just couldn’t get used to it as a phone.  Then everything changed when a friend lent me his original 2G iPhone to try for a few days in September 2009. At that time I was still using my Canon5d as my main camera. I was in a new shopping mall in Glasgow where, on a previous trip I had been told by the security guards to stop taking photographs of mannequins (another ongoing project which has got me thrown out of various shops).  But this time, I knew the images I wanted, moved in with my iPhone, took the shots and moved on quite inconspicuously.

Read the rest of this entry →

Ramona Gillentine

We are happy to present our second in the series of artist interviews here on Pixels At An Exhibition. This week, Ramona Gillentine, who is also our featured artist this month.

KB: Please tell us a little about yourself – where you live, if you hail from Earth, anything like that. Whatever you feel like sharing that isn’t covered in the questions below.

RG: I was born into a very creative and artistic family in December of 1979 in Tupelo, Ms, the town where Elvis Presley was conceived and began his King of Rock & Roll  journey. I lived there for 13 years and then moved to Oxford, a small town fifty miles west of Tupelo. Oxford is the home of The University of Mississippi which is where the first presidential debate of 2008 was held. Oxford is included in The Best 100 Small Towns in America, has a thriving music scene, and has been called the art center of the South.

KB: How long have you been shooting pictures with your iPhone?

RG: Overall, I have been shooting iPhone photos for two years. The first photo I app’d wasn’t until 2009 and I knew then that I had discovered a new creative passion. Read the rest of this entry →

We inaugurate a new feature at Pixels At An Exhibition, artist interviews, with a chat with one of our favorite artists, Ale Di Gangi, who, as most of you know, is a regular contributor here at Pixels and was one of our first featured artists. We will be publishing interviews every week with the pioneers of this new medium.

KB: Please tell us a little about yourself – where you live, if you hail from Earth, anything like that. Whatever you feel like sharing that isn’t covered in the questions below.

ADG: I was born in January 1966 in Firenze, one of the most widely known and visited cities of the whole universe. I still live there because
it feels like home to me. Visual arts as well as music were running in the family but nothing was done to educate me on these, so I had to do it all by myself after I went at the University and got a life of my own, discovering things and following instincts. I started dealing with writing, music, visuals at 19 through fellow students who already were artists, and with the years I have found a bit about my interests, eye – and style.
Hopefully much is yet to be found, though!

KB: How long have you been shooting pictures with your iPhone?

ADG: It all starts on January the 15th, 2009. On that very day I came to realize the iPhone camera would actually produce interesting output and not at the cpmplete garbage I was expecting… for at least six months I had refused to use it as I was sure results would be as disappointing as those of obnoxious Nokia’s.
When I first stumbled on QuadCamera and CameraBag, they took me by such surprise I could not stop shooting. Read the rest of this entry →

PixelsAtAnExhibition.com would like to thank the following individuals for helping make this show possible:

The OakBook Magazine:
Priyanka Sharma-Sindhar and Alex Gronke, http://theoakbook.com

Judges:
Christian Peacock, http://christianpeacock.com
Marty Yawnick, Life In LoFi
Jennifer Modenessi, Bay Area News Group, Arts Writer
Lauren Bernsen, Hewlitt-Packard Magcloud Division
Bill Cassel, http://thephilter.com
14, http://resplendentchaos.com
Maia Panos
Special thanks to:
Marty Yawnick
Ralph Benko
Andrea Kosko
Gustavo Lanzas
Rae Douglass & The Giorgi Gallery, Berkeley

And we would be remiss if we did not thank the pioneers of this emergent medium in theglobal iPhontographic community, especially those who have contributed such beautiful work to PixelsAtAnExhibition.com. Your art has taught us, inspired us, encouraged us.

May 8, 2010

Here is the list of works selected for the next gallery show. I want to mention how difficult choosing the “best” images was. In truth, the submissions were uniformly beautiful, amazing, thought-provoking. iPhontography was just emerging from its infancy as we called for submissions last December and the caliber of the work, the development of the medium, the growth on the part of you pioneering artists has been a joy and a thrill to both observe and of which to be a part.

If your work was not selected for this show, do NOT despair! We could only pick so many pictures … it was very difficult and all the judges (I will be adding a list with names and bios shortly) complained to me about the task I had set before them. There will be more shows and opportunities for exposure, as all of your work emerges onto the global stage.

Believe me: none of this would be happening if your pictures were not so beautiful

Lastly, I want to thank Marty Yawnick for his invaluable counsel and advice as we have developed plans for this show, as well as his stepping up and printing, at cost, all the archival edition prints for the show. It would be a very different show without his help and encouragement.

Small format:

1. X Marks The Spot – Marty Yawnick
2. Lamp – Russ Morris
3. Bumpy Ride – Marco La Civita
4. Layers – Maria Theresa Moerman

Large:

1. Lanterns – Steven Mills
2. Angry Sky – Edgar Cuevas
3. For Donna Ramsay – Trish Reda
4. Megalithic Moonlight – Gordon Ramsey
5. Red Wall Run – Giovanni Savino
6. Tattoo – Andrea Mdos
7. A Pool Game in April, 2010 – Jeremy Hindbo
8.  Red Coat – Warren Hukill
9. Soaring Sunday – Jaime Ferreyros
10. Korean Dancers – Wendy Kawabata
11. Huntington Man – Jose Chavarry
12. Let’s Go – Daniel Berman
13. Bright Lights Big City – Richard Hernandez
14. Repose – Sylvia Krivickova
15. Anomaly – Jon Betts
16. Temptation – Sandrine Grosjean
17. Nothing Keeps You Dry Like A Red Umbrella – Stephanie Chappe
18. Last Dive – Dan Marcolina
19. Landing Sequence – Michael Baranovic
20. Gathering – Fabio De Vincentiis
21. Mardi Gras – Juliana Atlee

You may also click on the “iPhontography 2010 show” link in the category list at the right to see the finalists.

Someone has written to ask why neither I nor Maia Panos was included here. There is a small room off the main gallery and we each will have a small selection of works in it. I hope no one finds this inappropriate.