“App-aritions”
Saturday: February 12, 2011 from 6:30pm-8:30pm
a studio2gallery invitational exhibit with 4 artists showcasing App-aritions
exhibit: February 12, 2011-March 5, 2011
1700 S. Lamar Blvd., Ste. 318, Austin, Texas 78704
Leon Alesi
Catherine McMillan
Carol Schiraldi
Tina Weitz
*iphone-aphy
I love being an artist because you an make up your own words. Iphone-aphy is the word I use for taking images with my iphone. The results are “App-aritions”. This exhibit features the app-aritions of 4 well seasoned photographers who have thousands of hours of technology and expertise behind them. Yet, drawn like a moth to flame, we cannot deny the imagery of iphone-aphy. – photographer and curator, Tina Weitz
Leon Alesi Art Statement
I always loved Polaroids. The look, the feel and the fun it was to take them. First, I mourned the loss of my beloved Captiva film and then Polaroid film altogether. When I found the Shake It app, which mimics the Polaroid sensibility, I was hooked all over again. With the iphone camera, I am excited to have a camera in my pocket at all times. The images I make with my phone are loose and of the moment. In this ongoing body of work my aim is to combine several images together to make a loose narrative. These vignettes seek to spark the viewer’s imagination in a way that a short story emerges.
Catherine McMillan Art Statement
Apps are amazing; I use quite a few, PSE (Photoshop Express), Light, Shake-It, Filterstorm, Camera Bag and Hipstamatic. Like my colleagues, I have discovered a newfound joy in the simplicity of an all in one too, my iphone. The art of photography is capturing and communicating something visual, it can be something you randomly see or something that you build. Being a commercial photographer, I have made a career of building images. The iphone has helped guide me into a more casual approach of creating images. It’s become an obsession of sorts; I play (key word because it is fun) with my iphone every chance I get!
Most of these images are photos taken with the iphone camera and then loaded up later on the before mentioned apps. Usually I start with curves in Filterstorm, then Camera Bag to pick out a camera, and then maybe a PSE or Filterstorm again for vignettes or borders, saturation, etc. – the possibilities are endless.
Carol Schiraldi Art Statement
My iphone has put the fun of photography back into my hands. It’s small, it’s sleek, it’s sexy. It’s easy to operate and easy to get away with. I love the joy of discovering new apps like Camera Bag, Plastic Bullet and Hipstamatic. I love Shake It Polaroid and the fake Tilt-Shift app. It’s been said that photography, specifically the camera, is a great equalizer of sorts. It allows artistic vision to be separated from the technician in all of us. With an iphone in your hands, you can go from artistic vision-from concept or idea-to finished product in a second or two. No Photoshop, no darkroom, no chemicals, no expense of films and such, only that vision come to life. It’s that purity of vision that keeps me coming back to the fun of the iphone camera. Never before has a camera allowed me to be so productive while freeing me from the shackles of being a technician. In the past, cameras were all about equipment, optics, and the necessities of the darkroom process. Now, there are boundless possibilities before our eyes whenever we “slide to unlock” them.
Tina Weitz Art Statement
I began to use my iphone camera to fill in for those moments I did not have my high tech equipment on hand. As I continued to use the iphone, a new love developed. I discovered the apps. I had lamented the departing of Polaroid Time Zero film almost 4 years ago, but found the new joy of Shake It, a beautiful tribute to the contrast and color of Polaroid. You even get the nostalgic click and whir, thank you developers. Then you watch (with fond memories of your Polaroid SX70 camera), as magic happens when the cloud of white begins to transform. This led to the next app, and the next, and the next… I hear the great debate about how valid an image from such an instant process can be accounted for- and I can resoundingly answer with diptychs and triptychs and tales of my travels and the anticipation I have with each iphone lens safari I make. Simplicity, such as this, brings clarity to my subjects and joy to my artistic heart.