Pixels: The Art of the iPhone

Marco La Civita

We are happy to present the next in our series of artist interviews here on Pixels—The Art of the iPhone. This week, Marco La Civita, whose work has brightened the site for a long time. We are certain many of you are acquainted with his vibrant pictures, as well as his generous involvement in the global iphonic art community. Without further ado …

KB: Marco, 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.

MLC: I was born in Italy where I lived until I graduated at the University of Rome. Then I moved to the US to get a Ph.D. I lived in Belgium for several years and now I am enjoying Madrid in Spain. One of the pleasant consequences of these changes is that I am fluent in 4 languages. I am currently working as a Guidance, Navigation, and Control scientist at Boeing Research and Technology Europe.

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

MLC: My first iPhone shot is dated 5th of May 2009.

KB: How often do you work on your art?

MLC: [laughs] This question depends on how you define art. The way I see it, an artist is a rare element in humanity. An artist sees what others don’t see, pushes the envelope, answers questions most of us don’t even know how or dare to pose. In that sense I am no artist, so the answer would be that I never work on my art. If by “art” we mean more “artisanry” then the answer is almost everyday. “Artisan” is an unfairly underrated word while the word artist is extensively over abused. I believe many presumptuously self-defined artists are no more than mediocre artisans. Read the rest of this entry →

We are happy to present the latest in our series of artist interviews here on Pixels At An Exhibition. This week, Marty Yawnick, who was also one of our first featured artists and the publisher of Life In LoFi, a website we consider to be essential for every person interested in the emergent art form of iphoneography and one we recommend to everybody, whether new or old to the 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.
MY: Hi, Knox! I’m Marty Yawnick. I have a camera. Sometimes I use it to make phone calls. I’m an iPhoneographer and I also publish the Life In LoFi: iPhoneography blog. I grew up in Southern California, but have lived in Fort Worth/Dallas for over 25 years. I make my living, such that it is, as a graphic designer. I have my own small studio in Fort Worth. I love to travel and my girlfriend Stacy and I try to do so as often as we can.

Anything I missed?

KB: No, although you avoided the not-of-this-earth question. How long have you been shooting pictures with your iPhone?
MY: I’ve been shooting for art with a phone since about 2005. I started shooting a project with my old Motorola RAZR. It had a horrible camera! VGA, small picture, no dynamic range, noisy like you wouldn’t believe! And I thought it’s qualities would compliment the bleakness and monotony, if you will, of the Dallas/Fort Worth suburban landscape. I keep threatening to exhibit that project’85!

I’ve been shooting with my iPhone since I got my 2G in June of 2008. I shot with Snapture a lot on my jailbroken 2G for a long time. CameraBag was the first iPhone filter app that really got me excited! Read the rest of this entry →

Jose's daughter

We are happy to present the latest in our series of artist interviews here on Pixels: The Art of the iPhone. This week, Jose Chavarry, a frequent, and much appreciated, contributor to the Pixels site..

KB: Jose, 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.

JC: I hail from Santa Clarita, California, which is about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The city was the inspiration for the town in “Edward Scissor Hands” which pretty much sums up what it’s like. I’m 33, a father to a beautiful little girl, and a huge Celtics fan.

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

JC: I purchased my first iPhone in 2007. I’ve been taking pictures ever since.

KB: How often do you work on your art?

JC: Everyday. If I’m not taking pictures, then I’m usually processing them.

KB: When did you get serious about it, and what was the turning point for you?

JC: I originally purchased the phone when my daughter was born to document her growth and share pictures with family and friends. It wasn’t until I started playing with a few of the photo apps that I realized the creative potential of my phone. The images I took began to come alive. It was (and still is) exciting. Read the rest of this entry →

Suzan Mikiel Kennedy

We are happy to present another in the series of artist interviews here on Pixels: The Art Of The iPhone. This week, Suzan Mikiel Kennedy, 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.

SMK: I grew up in Detroit.  Not the suburbs.  Detroit.  I attended Catholic schools in the nearest suburb- Grosse Pointe.  However I went to college in Detroit.  Wayne State University. Downtown Detroit.  After college I lived in Louisville, KY for a year, then headed to New York City and never looked back…until last month.  I’m moving to Los Angeles in a couple weeks.

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

SMK: I started cellular photography with a Motorola in 2006: http://photobucket.com/eyecell Several months later I got a new job and an iPhone. It must have been 2007ish. I didn’t actually start using apps until last year when I discovered flickr and, well, Pixels!

KB: How often do you work on your art?

SMK: Everyday. It’s a cold day in hell when I don’t take photos.  Either that or a day that I want to viscerally experience without the barrier of a camera to distance myself from the experience.  Sometimes you have to let your mind capture images and all the sensory elements that go along with them.

Body Language ©2010 Suzan Mikiel Kennedy

KB: When did you get serious about it, and what was the turning point for you?

SMK: I was really serious about my Motorola.  It took me awhile to get into my iPhone.  I was like, “what is this?? It’s a sucky regular camera but a fancy cellphone camera.” I didn’t know what to do.  I would post my weekend stuff on Facebook.  Nothing major.  Then I started using it on my commute on the Seven Train from Sunnyside, Queens to the city.  The 7 is such a visually inspiring experience for me, that I began to develop my street photography style.

KB: What do you like to shoot? When? How does your whole creative process work? And how has it evolved? 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 →