Instagram founder Kevin Systrom’s was in the photography club at school when:

my teacher handed me this plastic Holga camera and said, “You’re going to use this and learn to deal with imperfection.” I remember developing the first roll and the feeling I got from the vignetting and the light leaks that came from the blurry plastic lens. That transformed the way I looked at photography—from trying to replicate reality into taking a scene and creating some kind of interpretation of its mood.

Read more at The Fader.

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15 Comments

  1. … and forever the internet will be fouled with mediocre mobile phone photography that has been faked to look interesting through the instagram filters….

    • Well, as with most of the internet stuff you can disregard, not read, delete, unsubscribe or unfollow it. Honestly I have seen some mobile phone photography that I found a lot more compelling than the other stuff. Have you seen ‘Rhein II’?

  2. Why is the dilution of the craft to the point of utter mediocrity being celebrated? What’s the point of this tag? The fader is a great mag. However, if someone shot a spread for them with their smartphone they’d just be getting over, not breaking ground.

  3. Interesting thoughts, yet I find instagram and the iPhone photo syndrome a non threat to real fotografie.

    “What we care about is giving you the tools to take a snapshot from your camera and turn it into the mood you want. You wake up in the morning and your dog does something cute, you take a picture. At lunch, you have this really tasty sandwich, you take a picture. If someone was to play back a movie of your life, these would be the snapshots. It’s a way of expressing your life as it happens. ”

    Look at it this way, over fifty years ago, Kodak wanted everyone to Babel to take pictures, did it water down things, maybe a bit. I think photographers stepped up their game quite a bit and improved the level at which we work. We are now in a situation where change is taking place and stepping up the game is here again. Not only with still but motion too!

    More people are following their dreams of what they want to do with their life. So being a photographer or film maker is a lot more achievable for no names who didn’t finish school. Most people my age don’t like the boat being rocked, and when topics like this come up they get defensive and spout traditionalism. I am not saying F*@# tradition nor should anyone shoot a spread with an iPhone. I am saying things need to change, we need to grow and get better. Education in the arts needs to change too, the traditional setting of how and what is being taught is slightly archaic.

    • Ed, I really agree with your points here, except I don’t see why some spread could not be shot with an iPhone – I just don’t see the point. I always feel that it is the photographer and not the equipment that matters!

      • Christian,
        I look at the iPhone as I would look at a 110 camera, you can get great snapshots with it, but is has a lot of limitations on the size of printable images (technology is changing and one of these days large images will high quality). Besides, my pride would step in, no way in the world it will let me shoot anything but snapshots with it. Maybe I’m just snooty when it comes to whats used.
        You’re right about the photographer and equipment, it is the photographer. I have some wonderful large 24″and up prints in my office from a Nikon S51 point and shoot.

        I like the work you have showcased on your website by the way.

  4. The iPhone is just another camera, why the hate? I don’t get it. There’s gimmick in everything, just wait.

    • Hate, envy, malcontentedness – all these undertones seem to run through a lot of the comments on the blog. Maybe it is sign of the economic times?

  5. not exactly related to this post, but I just had to say that as I have been going through the 400+ photo blog posts that have piled up in my rss feed, A Photo Editor has made me stop and read more than any other. thanks for doing such consistently interesting work!


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