iPhone + apps = Art (?).



It’s easy.

Take a photo on your smart phone, open it in one of the myriad of editing applications then just keep on pressing the various presets until you find a treatment you like. Not quite enough choice ? Go and buy another application for 99 cents. Find the funky treatment, add the sloppy boarder, bingo ! Cool shot. Email to friends, upload to Flicker, post it on your blog.



You are creative.



This is the cynical side of my love/hate relationship with my iPhone. As a full time photographer for the past 35 years I am guilty of doing all of the above. And, I quite enjoyed it. Still do. Call it a guilty pleasure but the ethical dilemma remains. It’s not real photography - is it ? Other than taking the actual image someone else has done all the work for you.

But.

Does this process not give the ability to make creative images to everyone ? Is this not the complete liberation of photography as an art form? Hell, I’d rather look at a funky Iphone image than some boring landscape shot on large format. It’s the final image that really matters. Or is the execution and presentation an intrinsic component of the creative process? And therefore should that be taken into account when assessing an image for artistic merit.



What if Ansel Adams had an Iphone?