iPhone Photography Awards (IPPA) 2013
However we may feel about the growing interest in iPhone / Smartphone photography (iPhonography) as a photography genre, it’s increasingly apparent that this is no longer a fledgling niche area, or a passing photography fad. It now has a growing following of dedicated and talented practitioners who seek to further its acceptance as a legitimate photographic endeavour. We’re not talking here about the use of camera phones to record day to day events as personal (and social media) mementos, but the serious efforts of those who are taking an artistic approach to the genre. Perhaps some of this growing interest in iPhoneography is testament to the truth in the saying, “The best camera is the one you have with you!” After all we usually have our phone with us but may not be carrying a separate camera when a photo opportunity presents itself.
The increasing number of websites that promote iPhoneography, and the emergence of competitions dedicated to it, testify to it’s growing interest among the phone carrying public. One such competition is the annual iPhone Photography Awards (IPPA) now in its 6th year. The winning entries for the 2013 event have now been published on line and the compositional and artistic quality of the winning images testify to the talent of the authors.
There may be limitations to the image quality resulting from low pixel density, sensor quality, depth of field control, etc. However, the use of the many filters now available as smartphone apps for post processing, together with interesting composition, can add artistic interest to the final images.
Those of us who pursue traditional photography with high end dSLRs (and film SLRs) may not always give the emergence of new, and technically more limited, image capture very much credit, but like it or not, iPhoneography, in one guise or another, is likely to be around for quite some time to come. After all, hardware doesn’t limit creativity, lack of imagination and a closed mind do. I’m not advocating that we retire our dSLRs (or film SLR), but that we keep an open mind regarding developing trends in photography.
The worlds of iPhone photography and dedicated dSLR photography will continue to merge over the coming months and years – the Sony new Sony DSC-QX10 lens for the iPhone is testament to that – and we will see the boundaries between the two continuing to blur. (The Sony DSC-QX10 lens will be the subject of a separate post).
Check out the winning 2013 images on the IPPA website. The initial screen show the winning entries for each category. Click into the menu options, architecture, flowers, landscapes, etc., to see the shortlisted images for each category.
I’ve found the site rather slow at times, so be patient; the wait may be worth it.
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The use of the term iPhonography in this post can be taken to mean any image taken using a smartphone whether subsequently edited on an iOS, or Android device, or not.
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