THE SMART VIEW 001 / Preview

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Nine months of intense work brought me to this beautiful piece of paper. Building up a magazine from scratch requires a lot of strength, motivation and positive energy. My constant engine has been all of the great artists and people I’ve connected with during the process, encouraging me to proceed with the idea I had in October 2014. Without all those people who submitted to a call for submissions to an unknown and never before seen magazine in November and December 2014, this issue simply wouldn’t exist. I had the chance to connect with wonderful people from all over the world, to select and curate images from their blogs and Instagrams and ultimately to choose the best 15 projects, reflecting on the upcoming genre of mobile photography, from over 60 international submissions. Those 128 pages are the result of will and strength, of creating something that deals with contemporary culture and that focuses on the present advancement of photography. The mobile camera is just one of many inventions in the context of multiple technical advancements the camera has gone through since its emergence. Mobile photography is another step into the future and an evolution we should not and cannot ignore. Aside from the mass image production nowadays, the mobile phone camera has helped to democratise access to photography. Thus, photography has transformed into a cultural possession that no longer gathers dust in family photo albums. One thing I experienced while working on the magazine was that even if the boundaries between the amateur and the professional become totally blurred and mobile photography continues to be discredited for its supposed low quality, technical specifications are not what determine great photography. The most important thing is and always will be the message an image mediates to the viewer, regardless of its origin or device that is being used.

ROSA ROTH Founder and Editor-in-Chief @rosa.roth www.rosa-roth.com

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I N S T A G R A M S E L E C T I O N O F J ohn B o z ino v Digital Native and Freelance Photographer (Wellington, New Zealand)

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I N S T A G R A M S E L E C T I O N O F R 端 d iger v on S el z am Creative Director and Photographer (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

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T H E S E L F I E C O N N E C T S B Y M i k k o Villi Director of the Communication Research Centre (University of Helsinki, Finland)

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M M X I V S E L F C O N F I D E N C E B Y J o d y M attioli Fashion Photographer and Art Director (Florence, Italy)

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T H E C U L T I V A T I O N O F S E L F B Y C arina L 端 schen Fine Art Photographer (Hamburg, Germany)

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M E L F I E S 2 B Y J ac k son L a w lor E aton Artist (Melbourne, Australia)

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I N S T A G R A M S E L E C T I O N O F R osie U bacher Travel and Lifestyle Photographer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

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N I G E R I A N C E L L B Y Dimitri P rocofieff Photographer and Filmmaker (Geneva, Switzerland)

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( D I S ) P L A Y B Y P auline v on Katte Fine Art Photographer (Hamburg, Germany)

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E V E R Y B O D Y K N O W S . . . B Y Khesrau B ehro z Artist and Author (Berlin, Germany)

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C O N T A C T P R I N T S B Y E ri k A r k a d i S eth Photographer and Artist (Braunschweig, Germany)

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I N S T A G R A M S E L E C T I O N O F S in z iana Velicescu Photographer and Filmmaker (Los Angeles, California)

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BLACK BOX BY MICHAEL HABERBOSCH Photographer and Graphic Designer (Kiel, Germany)

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I N T E R V I E W w ith P ierre L e G o v ic Founder of the first Publishing House for Mobile Photography (Clamart, France)

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M O B I L E

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P I C T U R E S

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JOHN BOZINOV

NZ

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I N T E R V I E W With J ohn B o z ino v

itself was stuck in a rather archaic mindset, holding me

BY ROSA ROTH

back from exploring the avenues I wanted to pursue with my work. After a year of study I decided to leave so I could put energy into making the work I wanted to produce, which has led me to where I am now.

The theme of landscape dominates your pictures.

Would you define yourself as a landscape photographer?

I don’t think so. While natural landscapes are a recurring theme in a lot of my works, I don’t like the idea of pigeonholing myself as a “landscape photographer”.

Titles such as these can be limiting and in many ways are just an attempt to put a border around people where a border doesn’t exist. I certainly enjoy spending a lot of time outside amongst nature and I guess photographing these experiences is a natural extension of that, though I wouldn’t want to ever simply photograph landscapes exclusively - I like the idea of leaving myself open to explore many different areas of photography.

Tell me something about yourself. Where did you

On your homepage I can see that you work with di-

grow up? What sort of education did you have?

gital and analogue photography. Is there a medium you prefer?

I’m a 24 year-old photographer, born and raised in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Wellington

I started out using analogue cameras. Their tactile na-

is located at the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s

ture is what made me fall in love with photography, so

North Island, meaning that the ocean and nature are a

from that perspective I’ll always have a connection to

fundamental part of the city’s and my personal identi-

film and analogue processes. I really enjoy the whole

ty. I received education in a traditional sense at school

experience of shooting with film, it’s quite a romantic

and college, though it was never something that I felt

way to create images and I think it’s the medium that

entirely comfortable with, I often found that teaching

gives me the most personal satisfaction. In today’s age of

myself through online resources at my own pace worked

digital photography and social media there is a demand

best for me. After discovering an interest in analogue

for content to be shared online incredibly quickly, for

photography shortly after finishing college, I found that

these reasons 90% of what I shoot today is digital.

I was dedicating most of my time to learning about

Through digital photography I’m able to connect with

photography in both a theoretical and practical sense

a huge community of people online by sharing images

- so I figured it was best for me to enrol in a photogra-

only minutes after I’ve taken a picture. This connection

phy class at university. While the access to resources and

to a worldwide audience simply wouldn’t be possible

equipment at university was great, I felt that the faculty

through analogue means. It’s difficult to say which I

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prefer as each medium has its advantages, though my

meaning that they struggle to capture detail in the sha-

personal work is all shot on film.

dows and highlights of situations lit with harsh light.

For this reason I naturally lean toward shooting out-

You are running a lot of accounts on different sha-

doors in overcast or foggy weather, which creates a nice

ring and social network platforms. How much time

even light that helps to get a good exposure.

do you spend updating your pages? Do you think it’s important for your work to raise awareness among

Instagram was originally created to be a mobile pic-

the Internet community?

ture-sharing platform. Are the pictures you upload all taken with your phone or do you sometimes mix

There are so many platforms for image sharing these

it up with higher quality digital photographs you

days that it can be a little overwhelming. I try to stick

shot with your DSLR camera?

to using just a few and engaging with them often rather than trying to use them all at once. I think the Internet

90% of the photos I share on Instagram are from my

is a great place to get your work seen, though at the

iPhone simply because it’s convenient. Occasionally I’ll

same time there is a lot of competition these days. How

upload a photo from my DSLR if I like the shot, but the

important that is really depends on the content of your

increase in image quality is irrelevant when the photo

work, if it’s for a wide audience then social media is a

is compressed down to a small square. I see my camera

good option, though if it’s more specialised then per-

as a tool, sometimes my iPhone is the best tool to get

haps there are other avenues that may suit your work

the job done, other times it’s a DSLR - I don’t consider

better.

either to be inherently better than the other. I hope that Instagram remains primarily mobile based, for me it’s

Your Instagram boasts over 74.000 followers. When

what makes the platform unique.

did you start using Instagram, and why? How is it possible to accumulate so many people to like your

As you mentioned, mobile images lack in size and

blog?

quality, thus limiting the possibility to make high quality prints. How do you deal with the immateria-

I began using Instagram almost two years ago, though

lity that comes with the mobile picture?

I was hesitant to sign up at first. At the time I was shooting almost exclusively film and didn’t think it

Making small and medium sized prints with an iPhone

was the right place for my photography, though as I

photo is possible and I sell many of these online,

shifted more and more toward digital photography I

although things get very difficult when it comes to

began using Instagram simply to share photos with my

printing in larger formats. When out shooting, I’ll

friends. There is no set formula for having success

usually always have my DSLR and iPhone with me.

online; though there are some inherent properties of

If I see something that appeals to me and I think that

Instagram that I believe lend themselves to particular

I’d like to make a print of that image or that I need a

styles that work well with a mobile platform. Instagram

higher quality picture for some other reason I’ll always

images are usually viewed on either tablets or mobile

use my DSLR, for everything else I’ll simply use my

phones - meaning that the images are always small.

phone. The vast majority of pictures I put online have

With only limited space, it’s therefore important not

no purpose after they’ve been uploaded. They’re only

to clutter your frame too much. Mobile phone cameras

there to communicate an idea or emotion, or maybe it’s

are also notorious for having a poor dynamic range -

just something I find beautiful... but that’s all.

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E v eryone

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( or

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“The mere fact that my camera phone is always at hand and I basically have my finger on the trigger at all times, forces me to keep my eyes peeled, to stay attentive and open to the world around me. Even though I don’t capture everything photographically, things are etched onto my brain. The mobile phone gives you so much room to experiment: during the process of shooting itself, as well as with the editing afterwards. Even if my main goal is to produce large format images using my DSLR or a medium format camera, my phone acts as a kind of sketchpad that accompanies this process. I would never want to give it up. Within this new context, smartphones are of course producing a considerable amount of photographic spam. If you consider textual-content spam, however, things are not that different. The beautiful thing about this is that everyone gets the chance to speak (or shoot). The resulting creativity is really diverse and subject to very few dogmas.”

R ü d iger Von S el z am @vanderselzam www.selzam.net Grew up in Singapore, Toronto and Bavaria.

As a creative director, he runs a small design studio in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Rüdiger has employed photography as a means of self-expression that also serves as an antithesis to his commercial design work.

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MI K K O VILLI

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“Single shots are not very interesting to me. The story hidden behind the creation of a picture is much more captivating; a sort of grand diary of smaller works, almost banal, not overly significant, mixed with various moments which in turn are important and beautiful.

A composition like this tells “your” overall story - a pictorial biography.”

J O D Y M AT T I O L I @jodymattioli www.jodymattioli.com Mattioli is a fashion photographer and art director who works for brands like Gucci, Armani Jr, Patrizia Pepe and has been published in Vogue and Harpers Bazaar among others. He is based in Florence, Italy.

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J a ck s on LAWL O R EAT O N

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Jackson Eaton’s series “Melfies 2” presents the artist’s body concealed by a surrealist collage of networked selves. Mirror-selfies (shortened to “melfies”) are taken, and then dissected digitally and reverse-image searched using Google. A host of visually similar material is then overlaid, masking Eaton’s natural or biological self with digital miscues from the image abundance. These fragmented bodies of commodified objects highlight the extent to which our online self is connected to readymade and corporate structures, offering the idea that the artist’s self-image might act as a kind of resistance to the redundancy brought about by increasingly repetitive and automated forms. Exhibited through the image networking platform Instagram, “Melfies 2” explores the failure of attempts to control our self-presentation and express our individuality on social media.

“I think mobile photography, or what I generally call networked photography, is such a huge part of photography that it’s impossible to ignore. It dominates our life in terms of images we create and consume, and so it’s important to think critically about how that affects our ideas and experience of the self and the body.”

J A C K S O N L AW L O R E AT O N @jacksoneaton www.jacksoneaton.com Jackson Eaton is currently doing his Master of Fine Art degree at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

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P A U LI N E V O N K ATTE

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K HESRA U B EHR O Z

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Everybody knows where they were when they heard that kennedy died.

I downloaded an application on my smartphone called “Metadata”, which sends out push notifications every time it gets information on an American drone attack in the Eastern side of the world. To make sure I wouldn’t miss an attack because of technical problems, I set up Twitter to send me a push notification every time the user “@dronestream” tweeted about a new attack.

Metadata and Dronestream share the same source.

I juxtaposed screenshots of every push notification with mobile pictures I took in the moment and place I saw the push notification. Every collage is going to be spread across my social networks, especially on my Tumblr-blog called whenkennedydied.tumblr.com. The project started on March 4th, 2013, when I was living in New York City. So far I have created 60 collages. It is ongoing.

KHESRAU BEHROZ www.khesraubehroz.com www.whenkennedydied.tumblr.com Behroz was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and is currently based in Berlin, Germany where he writes and works.

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C omplete

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SI N Z IA N A VELI C ES C U

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“I use many cameras, from film to digital, big and small - but what I love about mobile photography is that, in a sense, all of the technical aspects are stripped, allowing one to have complete creative freedom when taking a photograph. Sometimes the technical limitations of a camera can hold a person back from creating a beautiful image.�

SINZIANA VELICESCU @casualtimetravel www.sinzianavelicescu.com Photographer and filmmaker, who is based in Los Angeles, California.

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inter v ie w w ith P ierre L e G o v i C

Out of the Phone published its second book some

by R osa R oth

months ago, “The Mobile Photo Book - 2014 Edition”. Where did the idea to concentrate on working

foun d er of the

with mobile photography come from?

first publishing house for

Publishing photography on paper has been in my mind

mobile photography

for a long time. When I was a printer I already wanted to create a publishing house. Two years ago, when I had enough time to think about what I would really love to do, this idea came back when using Instagram.

I decided to focus on mobile photography mainly be-

OUT OF THE PHONE

cause I felt that a new generation of photographers was being born. The democratic and connected device was allow-ing people to create and share images instantly but some beautiful posted images were quickly forgotten... Helping to create memories of them should be the next step.

You‘ve selected about 100 photographers for “The Mobile Photo Book”. How did you choose your contributors? What’s special about the photographers you are featuring? What do they have in common?

I’ve been curating images on Instagram for about 3 years, first for my blog emotiondaily.com and then for my publishing house, so I had an idea of what the book could be. But as there are a lot of interesting pictures that I obviously cannot see, in late September, I put some publicity on Instagram saying: “1 hashtag / 10 days / 100 photographs” in order to let people know that I had this book project and to encourage them to tag their best pictures before we close the entries for timing reasons. Guidelines were: only mobile pictures posted on Instagram in 2014. It was not a contest, just a way to tell people that we were working on a book project and that we were open to submissions through the tag.

Out of the Phone’s first publication from 2013

What‘s special about the book?

in cooperation with iPhone photographer Richard Koci Hernandez from Berkeley, California

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I think this is a publisher’s point of view. I put my own

sensibility in this book. It is important to note that I

to hold an image, or at least to take enough time to look

only chose photographs taken by photographers with

at it. Our phones are now smart but they are certainly

a consistent work on their Instagram feed. That being

not able to bring the same pleasure and sensations that

said, I guess I tell a story through this book. It’s a per-

paper definitely does. Quality deserves time and paper

sonal creative process.

is probably the best way to make photographs stay alive.

To keep memories of good images is important to me.

Creating photo books requires high quality print and production. How much time do you take to pro-

What are your future plans? What comes next?

duce a book?

I have many other book projects. At this stage, I’d like to This book took me two months between the last sub-

find partners and investors to help my company grow.

missions and the delivery of the books in Paris (inclu-

I have a much bigger picture in mind for the brand.

ding selection, sequencing, design, photo-engraving, printing and binding), which is very fast... Not much sleep but it’s good energy!

How close do you collaborate with the photographers/artists with regard to the production of their publication?

Very closely. This is a common adventure and the complicity is important. For now I must say that everybody has trusted my choices. This generation of photographers are not familiar with publishing so I guess they are happy to put their works in experienced hands.

But more importantly, these photographers have their minds wide open. They have learned to share and not to keep secrets. They are free, curious and passionate.

When Richard Koci Hernandez and I decided to publish our book “Downtown”, Richard let me decide everything. I was really impressed by his confidence. He is a great man.

All over the world millions of mobile pictures are

P ierre L e G o v ic

shared and posted instantly every day. Why do you think it’s important to see mobile photography printed and haptic?

@outofthephone www.outofthephone.com

I think that touch is a primary need. People mainly en-

Founder of Out of the Phone and creator of

joy mobile photography on the screen of their smart-

emotiondaily.com - a mobile photo blog.

phones or tablets and I find it frustrating not to be able

Le Govic is based in Clamart, France.

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THE SMART VIEW

Thanks to

001 Reflections on mobile photography

Geoffrey Batchen, Birgit Bogatzki, Nina Divitschek,

ISSN 2364-7469

Michael Diers, Lucas Dörre, Chelsea Frangie,

06 / 2015

Katharina Gaennsler, F. C. Gundlach, Egbert Haneke, Richard Koci Hernandez, Marie-Sophie Kever,

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

Curie Kure, Sebastian Lux, Franziska Mecklenburg,

Rosa Roth

Michaela Melián, Fabian Mrongowius, Jørgen Naskrent, Ingo Offermanns, Thomas Polajner, Blanca Puig,

Editorial Team

Oliver Rolf, Elke Scholz, Mikko Villi, Christian Wöhrl

Colette Dörrwand Simone Hodemacher

Special thanks to our supporters from

Shuchang Xie

Nordstarter and Startnext Hendrik Klemme and Hector Navarro

Art Direction Gerrit Holz

This issue has been supported by the crowd!

Rosa Roth

With friendly support of Freundeskreis der HfbK e.V.

Texts

Content

Khesrau Behroz, Michael Haberbosch,

The editorial team and the publisher do not take over

Jackson Lawlor Eaton, Pauline von Katte,

responsibilty for the accuracy of the content of this

Carina Lüschen, Dimitri Procofieff,

issue. The editorial team and the publisher require that

Rosa Roth, Erik Arkadi Seth, Mikko Villi

material submitted for publication is free from thirdparty rights. The copyright of the submitted texts and

Photographs

pictures belongs to the photographers and writers. The

Khesrau Behroz, John Bozinov,

published material may only be reproduced or used

Jackson Lawlor Eaton, Michael Haberbosch,

with the permission of the publisher.

Jody Mattioli, Pauline von Katte, Pierre Le Govic, Dimitri Procofieff,

THE SMART VIEW

Rüdiger von Selzam, Erik Arkadi Seth,

Independent art magazine for mobile photography

Julia V. Szafarczyk, Sinziana Velicescu, Rosie Ubacher

Theres Lehmann Wielandstraße 55

Translation/Proofreading

22089 Hamburg, Germany

Adis Begovic (www.crosstext.net) Rose Burrowes

info@thesmartview.de www.thesmartview.de

Print and binding druckhaus köthen GmbH & Co. KG Friedrichstraße 11/12 06366 Köthen (Anhalt) www.koethen.de

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“I would never think about pulling out my phone at a shoot. Conversely, I don’t see myself jogging around town with my DSLR around my neck or going “undercover” with it faking selfies. Mobile photography is, and always will be, a supplement. But a damn good one at that! With almost never ending possibilities - and high social and fun factors.”

J U L I A V. S Z A F A R C Z Y K @verkazen www.salon.io/verkazen Graphic designer based in Berlin, Germany.

Julia has been selected as the cover feature for the first print issue of The Smart View and is presented on the front, back and inside covers.

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