A Quick Wrap-Up of the Apple/APA Presentation
Posted on
July 09, 2010 by
Knox
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.
[caption id="attachment_20518" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="The last slide."]
[/caption]
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.
I delineated our strict adherence to the iPhone-only policy regarding image processing and that the vast majority of the community is in agreement here.
I then did a quick run-through of the basic apps and showed some examples of how they worked: Vintage B&W, Camera Bag, Tilt-Shift Generator, LoFi, BestCam, Toy Camera, and, of course, Hipstamatic. I know, I could have picked others! But my intent was just to show a quick overview to this group of [mostly] photographers.
After that, I showed five or ten images of the work of a number of artists to demonstrate the range of styles and, also, the range of app use in the community. I started with Greg Schmigel, who shoots black and white street shots in NYC and does nothing else to the pictures and moved on to Suzan Mikiel Kennedy, Dixon Hamby, Marty Yawnick, Marco La Civita, Sandrine Grosjean, Jaime Ferreyros, Daniel Berman, and on to the far end: Jon Betts, Maia Panos, both of whom spend hours and sometimes days on an image, working on the tiny iPhone to perfect and burnish the picture, and myself, showing early totally over-apped art. Using these artists as examples I was able to show every degree of appage out there. There are so many more people I could have chosen, but with all of these artists I was fairly well acquainted with their styles and had a fair idea how they work. And I also knew each had a lot of pictures from which I could choose.
[caption id="attachment_20519" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The prints made a huge impression, as they always do."]
[/caption]
I then ran through the images from the recent OakBook show, indicating where the artists live, what apps they used (where I could tell, or knew for sure).
After that I took them to this site and showed them the kind of work we receive on a daily basis, while Frank, the theater manager, put out prints for display.
People were very enthusiastic about the work and their excitement was palpable. It made it very easy to talk. We had a vibrant question-and-answer session, wherein technical questions were asked, i.e., about printing, or were we thinking that the new iPhone 4 camera is too good, etc. Lots of questions, lots of compliments about the work. Very positive.
After it was over, everybody came up with compliments and more questions, took and gave business cards, went over and studied and photographed the prints carefully ...
I had a couple of conversations which indicate the possibility of some very interesting developments for our community in the near future. I hope to have real news very shortly.
Today, I got all kinds of compliments and props from all sorts of people, but I want to say one thing that is always in my mind: none of anything I do, or we do, or have done since we put out the first call for submissions last December would mean anything at all if it were not for the amazing quality of work, that just keeps getting better, that the community submits here on a daily basis. For that, I am always thankful, and often humbled, especially when a new picture comes in that is so good that I think I should just hang it up, as far as making pictures goes.
But, like most of you out there, I can't stop!
[/caption]
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.
I delineated our strict adherence to the iPhone-only policy regarding image processing and that the vast majority of the community is in agreement here.
I then did a quick run-through of the basic apps and showed some examples of how they worked: Vintage B&W, Camera Bag, Tilt-Shift Generator, LoFi, BestCam, Toy Camera, and, of course, Hipstamatic. I know, I could have picked others! But my intent was just to show a quick overview to this group of [mostly] photographers.
After that, I showed five or ten images of the work of a number of artists to demonstrate the range of styles and, also, the range of app use in the community. I started with Greg Schmigel, who shoots black and white street shots in NYC and does nothing else to the pictures and moved on to Suzan Mikiel Kennedy, Dixon Hamby, Marty Yawnick, Marco La Civita, Sandrine Grosjean, Jaime Ferreyros, Daniel Berman, and on to the far end: Jon Betts, Maia Panos, both of whom spend hours and sometimes days on an image, working on the tiny iPhone to perfect and burnish the picture, and myself, showing early totally over-apped art. Using these artists as examples I was able to show every degree of appage out there. There are so many more people I could have chosen, but with all of these artists I was fairly well acquainted with their styles and had a fair idea how they work. And I also knew each had a lot of pictures from which I could choose.
[caption id="attachment_20519" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The prints made a huge impression, as they always do."]
[/caption]
I then ran through the images from the recent OakBook show, indicating where the artists live, what apps they used (where I could tell, or knew for sure).
After that I took them to this site and showed them the kind of work we receive on a daily basis, while Frank, the theater manager, put out prints for display.
People were very enthusiastic about the work and their excitement was palpable. It made it very easy to talk. We had a vibrant question-and-answer session, wherein technical questions were asked, i.e., about printing, or were we thinking that the new iPhone 4 camera is too good, etc. Lots of questions, lots of compliments about the work. Very positive.
After it was over, everybody came up with compliments and more questions, took and gave business cards, went over and studied and photographed the prints carefully ...
I had a couple of conversations which indicate the possibility of some very interesting developments for our community in the near future. I hope to have real news very shortly.
Today, I got all kinds of compliments and props from all sorts of people, but I want to say one thing that is always in my mind: none of anything I do, or we do, or have done since we put out the first call for submissions last December would mean anything at all if it were not for the amazing quality of work, that just keeps getting better, that the community submits here on a daily basis. For that, I am always thankful, and often humbled, especially when a new picture comes in that is so good that I think I should just hang it up, as far as making pictures goes.
But, like most of you out there, I can't stop! 
