Looking Back - Giancarlo Ceraudo

Cuba a land filled with color, where time hangs suspended, is a nation of contrasts. A country struggling with a nightmare that has been a way of life for many generations, is also an island of contradictions. Yet it remains a magnet for romantics and creative souls looking to capture the crumbling reflections of a past before it has all disappeared.

So when I discovered the work of Giancarlo, an uncompromising photographer who sought out a darker side of Cuban life, portraying a colorless, stark reality with brutal hardcore precision, I was confronted with the face of Cuba tourists do not see.

Giancarlo Ceraudo (Rome - 1969) is a documentary photographer based in Buenos Aires. For ten years he has been documenting social, cultural, health and human rights issues with a focus on Latin America. Since 2008 he has been working on a long-term project documenting the changes in Cuba since the passage of power to Raul Castro.

His work has been widely published in Italian and International publications including L'Espresso, Internazionale, El Pais, GEO and National Geographic. His images are part of the collection of the Maxxi (National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome) and have been exhibited in galleries throughout Italy, Spain, France and the United States.

Habana Cruda

 Giancarlo Ceraudo

Old Havana, a man and a woman drunk at dawn on the Malecon

Daily life in Old Havana

An old man inside his house in a building crumbling in the center of Havana

Faithful out of the Church of Virgen de Las Mercedes 

during the syncretic ceremony in honor of Obatalà

Portrait of Nadia outside a nightclub in Old Havana

Irina and Carolina on the Malecon. Carolina is Argentina and emigrated to

Cuba four years ago, Irina is a young singer of the Nueva Trova Cubana

Two prostitutes in a garage between the Malecon y Calle 23

A woman at the entrance of a theater in the Vedado district

Old Havana street

LINKs:  

          Giancarlo Ceraudo website

          Giancarlo Ceraudo at Photoshelter 

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FX Photo Studio HD

After the recent success of McPhun’s FX Photo Studio for the iPhone having reached 1 million new users in just 4 days, McPhun decided to also make the companion iPad version available for free. 

The FX Photo Studio HD (original price $1.99) will be available for ‘Free’ until FX Photo Studio has reached 10 million new users. So be one of the 10 million new users and get your copy today.

FX Photo Studio HD iPad screen shot

Link to FX Photo Studio HD at iTunes

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One Year Later - Happy First Birthday TiPA

When The iPhone Arts was first conceived back in February 2012 and launched on April 21, I had no idea where things would lead to or how much mobile photography would consume my life. With twelve months passed, 87 posts behind me, more than 27,000 iPhone images captured, I find myself just as enthusiastic, if not more so then on that first day.

Happy First Birthday TiPA

There have certainly been challenges and growing pains but at no time did I lose interest or the websites purpose, which has been to promote mobile fine art photography. Though the website has undergone several content changes, there will be a few more in the coming weeks and months, as I construct a stronger foundation upon which to build the websites continued future.

One of the new categories I am proud to unveil in the coming weeks, is the collaboration of other mobile photographers, who are participating on a specific subject matter and their artistic interpretation of that subject.

I will also resurrect the features, What is on Your Bookshelf and Contact Sheet, and continue with the popular Hipstamatic Film and Lens Tests, including mobile phone exhibits reviews. Currently on the drawing board is a quarterly or twice-yearly call for portfolio submission.

I was sad to see come to a halt was the successful Weekly Showcase and Curator’s Choice. After the website was hacked, Google temporarily posted a warning about The iPhone Arts, which it lifted it 48 hours later, but FaceBook blocked me from posting the Weekly Showcase results for more than three months. I am considering bringing back the Weekly Showcase and Curator’s Choice, just not sure if it will be through Instagram or another venue like EyeEm or Flickr.

iPhone captured and iPhone post process

using 6x6, Snapseed, Laminar Pro and Blender

Since shooting with an iPhone, I have shown little of my own photography, especially the multiple projects that have taken months to accumulate. With a new series called Passport to My Neighborhood, I will be sharing some of my photographs. 

In closing, I wish to acknowledge and say thank you to my readers for your continued support and encouragement. Knowing you take the time to visit and occasionally leave a comment, means very much to me. So now, together we close one chapter, our first year and start upon our second year.

All photographs taken with an iPhone 4S by

©2014 Egmont van Dyck - All Rights Reserved

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ArtHaus MPA Photo Essay Winners Exhibit

This year the second MPA awards was separated into two parts, with the second and main MPA exhibit being held  this year in SOHO Digital Art Gallery in New York City, in conjunction with 11/97 Mobile Photography Conference. While the ArtHaus MPA Photo Essay winners exhibit is being held this month at ArtHaus in San Francisco.

The directors of ArtHaus, James Bacchi and Annette Schutz reviewed the numerous submissions to the category ArtHaus Photo Essay, and while this is a subcomponent of MPA, the winners were still eligible for the grand prize MPA Artist of the Year.

I decided to stop by the ArtHaus a day before the shows opening, since I was in the area visiting the team at Hipstamatic for the Rick Rocamora exhibit, in the hope of meeting Daniel Berman, the man behind the Mobile Photography Awards.

Daniel Berman, founder of MPA

Upon arriving at ArtHaus, I found Daniel on the floor in the offices of James Bacchi. He was deeply involved in last minute preparations of matting and framing the Photo Essay winners. This permitted Daniel and me to catch up on each other’s news, especially since it was also the first time we meet face to face.

Looking back in from the street

The framer responsible for hanging the exhibit was waiting for Daniel to finish and as I left, I had a final look back inside from the street when I photographed the framer making his suggestions to Daniel, leaning against the office’s back wall. 

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Melissa Vincent and Jen Pollack Bianco at ArtHaus

Returning on the day of the artist’s reception, I waited for Melissa Vincent and Jen Pollack Bianco, the only two who would able to make an appearance.

In the first ArtHaus Photo Essay awards, Melissa Vincent’s “The Rooms of William Faulkner” takes the top prize. Her hauntingly beautiful images not only reflect the ambiance of Faulkner’s residence, but Melissa’s post production work, all on an iPhone 4S, introduces other elements into the photograph which relates to Faulkner. 

Personally I was not aware of the intricate weaving of these elements, the story within a story, until I had the pleasure to meet Melissa Vincent. She spoke with a southern-drawl, a true Mississippi twang that made one feel like being back in the South, sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, sipping on a tall glass of ice cooled tea and inhaling the fragrance of flowering Magnolia blossoms.

Melissa Vincent with patron

With bubbly excitement Melissa shared of her experience at the Faulkner’s house, the many different rooms and their influence on the development of her images. She told us of how her mother read every book Faulkner published and how his stories on the printed page fueled also a daughter’s imagination years later in the creation of this set of five photographs, all of which were executed with clean technical precision, but also the beauty Melissa felt in her heart of what she saw.

The Rooms of William Faulkner

Melissa Vincent

All photographs above ©2012 Melissa Vincent - All Rights Reserved

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The intensifying morning sun reflecting off the domes, drenches the surrounding colors, compounding it’s richness into sumptuous unworldly realms to which the dedicated aspire to, in humbling mystic dedication. The mesmerizing euphoria fuzed with prayer and burning incense rising to the heavens above under protective gaze of Buddha’s, is what Jen Pollack Bianco observed and quietly captured with her iPhone 5.

Jen Pollack Bianco with patron

Travel images that make you want to pack your bags, reach for your passport and clean out your savings account to book the next flight to Yangon, Myanmar, formerly known as Rangoon, Burma.

Jen recounts her two days in Shwedagon with passion, the same kind of passion that is evident in her photographs, which seem to come to life right off the printed page as walking monks appear to float above the ground.

Scenes from Sunrise at Shwedagon Pagoda

Jen PollackBianco

All photographs above ©2012 Jen Pollack Bianco - All Rights Reserved

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Third Place: Benamon Tame - The Lost Toy Room

©2012 Benamon Tame - All Rights Reserved

Honorable Mention: Catherine Restivo - Peony in Extremis

©2012 Catherine Restivo - All Rights Reserved

Honorable Mention: Helen Breznik - The Basement

©2012 Helen Breznik - All Rights Reserved

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The ArtHaus MPA Photo Essay exhibit ran simultaneously with The Chosen One, featuring some of San Francisco’s interior designers favorite artists. As much as I enjoyed visiting with all parties connected with the exhibit and especially seeing the beautiful work that was created by exceptional mobile artists, I felt the exhibit suffered from lack of space and lighting. 

The work was displayed in tight vertical groupings and due to the room facing the street, some daylight produced reflective glare on a number of pieces. Disregarding any limitations, I still feel one should acknowledge the important work by these innovative mobile artists with a visit to The ArtHaus. 

All photographs taken with an iPhone 4S by

©2014 Egmont van Dyck - All Rights Reserved

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SHOOTER, the First Mobile Photography Magazine

Last February, at the annual MacWorld Convention held in San Francisco, I had the pleasure to meet Milos Kalvin, publisher of SHOOTER, and Luis Torres, managing editor and two other members of the team, Estefania Mendoza and Begoña Ferreira, promoting the first international magazine dedicated to the best artistic mobile photography.

Luis Torres, Milos Kalvin

The SHOOTER team from Spain was busy meeting with iPhoneographers at the Mobile Masters seminar, handing out complimentary issues of their first edition of SHOOTER. The magazine is a large high-end, 200 page, quarterly publication, showcases some of the very best mobile photography from 37 different countries.

The magazine was conceived at the end of 2011, by three enterprising amateur camera phone photographers. The three are Milos Kalvin, publisher and chief visionary; Lius Torres, managing editor; and Gonzalo Pubul, network developer.

SHOOTER is intended as a junction point for photo-swapping communities, and a medium for reproducing the most interesting work and sharing it with thousands of enthusiasts from around the world. Milos Kalvin describes their magazine as a “Countercultural and counter-trend product which is publicised and sold over the Internet, but uses a traditional high-quality paper format.”

He goes on to explain, “We want to take the virtual and make it tangible, to take the ephemeral and make it eternal, and to show the artistic heights that can be reached by sensitive, curious amateurs wielding camera phones.”

A very enthusiastic Milos supported by the SHOOTER team at MacWorld 2013

Luis Torres, Milos Kalvin, Begoña Ferreira, Estefania Mendoza

Each issue of SHOOTER carries several articles about mobile photographers in different countries, including interviews, and a guide to events of interest to our readers and of course, the magazine is packed with photographs.

The magazine’s circulation is supported via the concept of crowd funding, whereby the first 3,000 subscribers are also partners, friends, collaborators, patrons and shareholders. “We are looking for partners, not customers,” says Kalvin.

The first two issues of SHOOTER

Issue #1, photos by Giacomo Per 

Issue #2, photos by Mayka Navarro

Issue #2, photos by Karen Boulder-Devine

SHOOTER Magazine Team at Mac World 2013

Milos Kalvin, Estefania Mendoza, Begoña Ferreira, Luis Torres

I had a wonderful time with the SHOOTER team, especially our impromptu photo shoot on the second floor of Mascone WEST Convention Center. It also help greatly that my friend Carlos Austin from Texas was there to assist in translating our conversation to and from Spanish, especially since I know only a few phrases to get me by.

Begoña Ferreira, Carlos Austin at MacWorld 2013

Links:

For more information about SHOOTER, you can visit their Wordpress website

or their FaceBook Fan Page.

For a partnership subscription information please click here.

All photographs taken with an iPhone 4S by

©2014 Egmont van Dyck - All Rights Reserved

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One Day in April

One day in April, McPhun Software will make available for a limited time, a free copy of FX Photo Studio for the iPhone. Not since the original debut of the program back in 2009, has it ever been offered for free.

The application originally costs $1.99 and it's collection of 194 photo effects and filters plus helpful editing tools is a wonderful addition to any iPhoneographers toolbox.

So if you wish to secure your copy, please click on the link beneath the animated illustration to be taken to their website.

Click here to secure your copy

For more information about FX Photo Studio visit iTunes 

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Rick Rocamora Exhibit at the Haus of Hipstamatic

The Haus of Hipstamatic located in San Francisco's South of Market District, opened it’s doors last Thursday for an exhibit featuring award-winning documentary photographer Rick Rocamora’s street images of San Francisco, entitled Fragments From My Mind’s Eye last week.

Rick’s keen observing eye, has captured daily city life we city folks seem to take for granted. Using his iPhone and various Hipstamatic lens-film settings, he walks the cities diverse multi-cultural streets, shooting interesting and unpredictable candid moments. 

     

Street photography is unscripted, requiring an inquisitive roving eye to catch the subtleties that makes a photograph exceptional and different from just being a snapshot. It requires more than being at the right place at the right time, it requires being invisible and hoping the light is just right too.

All the images were 36x36 inches, printed on Hipstamatic’s scrolled print canvases with wooden pine dowels ends that have been stained in walnut. The canvases are coated with an invisible finish varnish, which not only archives the image for a century, but also protects against scuffing.

After viewing the exhibit and meeting with Rick, many patrons and guests ventured up to the rooftop for not only the wonderful view of the city south of Market, but also for the Happy Hour.

Rick Rocamora with long time friend and fellow photographer, Monica Lee

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Fragments From My Mind’s Eye

Photographer Rick Rocamora

Links: Hipstamatic Scroll Canvas Prints

Notes: All images taken with the Hipstamatic app, using a 
          Jane lens with DC or Rock BW-11 film, processed in Snapseed

All photographs taken with an iPhone 4S by

©2014 Egmont van Dyck - All Rights Reserved

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