This is actually more of a “thinking” subject than plain facts, but it’s pretty interesting and has been in my head for quite some time now. Let’s think about an evil example first. Do you think that macromedia making flash (well, making, buying whatever ;)) thought for a moment that it’ll cause a mass of screen blocking, full blown ads all over the internet? But on the other hand they didn’t probably think about how complicated and amazing the flash games can be, and that youtube made online video possible thanks to that technology. So basically it’s nothing new – a technology is a tool, a path that we can use and misuse (which is way more fun) to make something out of it that wasn’t originally intended.
So where else can we find an example of that? Well one thing are the LOMO cameras. Those cheap, old, film-based russian cameras became an instant hit for trendy hipsters, emo kids, and artistic souls. Taking blurry snapshots of a moving arm, a shoe, a fruit bowl. Then posting it everywhere. It all became a sort of artistic revolution, because the camera’s faults made up for the originality of the outcome. And that’s what matters.
And since we’re talking pictures – there’s the iPhone. Sure 90% of the phones in the market now have better cameras. That’s beside the point. iPhone has a bad, cheap camera but it has one advantage. Apps! People made hundreds of photography apps, both “new camera” apps and photo retouch, editing, effects, filters etc. So you can have an iPhone Lomo, an iPhone HDR (well sort of) and plenty of amazing looking pictures (and if not amazing then at least creative). Because the built in camera “thinks for you” while taking a shot. But with some clever apps and an open mind you can do exactly what you want to, when you want to. And since you have the camera with you because most of us carry our phones with us all the time, you can take a photo anytime, anywhere.
Iphoneograpy is the term for the iPhone app’s photograpy and it’s represented by sites such as :
Iphoneography.com
And also our friends from hype4.com have made a photoblog with their iphone pictures (some unaltered) at
CreativeBuzz.org
Be sure to check those out!