The new Polaroid
I have spoken of camera phones in the past, stating that they would be the death of the Photojournalism field. While this may not happen anytime real soon, I think that the availability and accessibility to the general public has greatly impacted
“Real news” brought to you by the people. However, it now seems to be affecting the fine art field as well. Photographers like Chase Jarvis and Lisa Wiseman use iPhones for fine art projects and others have even used camera phones to do professional work. This at first did not make much sense to me. Why would professional photographers advocate the use of low-resolution, slow shutter-speed cameras that any 15-year old girl would just toss in her purse? The answer is simple: Camera Phones are the next Polaroids and Holgas.
Photos by Lisa Wiseman
The low-tech-no-extras approach to photography is very refreshing. Most camera phones are in the range of 2-5 megapixels, and they don’t exactly have a large color palette or much dynamic range – but the DO produce unique, one of a kind images. And now it’s easier than ever to put those photos where people can see them on sites like Tumblr and Flickr with new technologies and smart phones.
Photo by Robert Schultze
Be sure to check out the Some-Photog-Tumblog for more camera phone photos.
Cameraphones: The future of Photojournalism?
Cellphones are everywhere these days. From senior citizens to five-year-old toddlers, I would say that you would be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t own a cellphone. And now, cellphones can do just as much as laptops – and in the case of the iPhone’s Subway Station finder, they can do more:
So the ability to take photos and capture video is no sweat and while it’s still not the primary use of cellphones, the quality of the cameras are increasing.The iPhone has a 2 megapixel sensor, LG’s KC780 has an 8 megapixel sensor, and Samsung recently released a 12 megapixel camera phone in europe.
More megapixels does not mean better pictures – you and I both know that. But how long will it be before camera phones have the same abilities as a DSLRs? There are already a number if incidences where the local news stations have shown videos or photos captured by a camera phone. More and more, the industry seems to be turning to “Citizen journalists” as a means to get on the “inside.”
I think that we’re a ways off from camera phones taking over the DSLR market. But the reality is it’s out there, everyone and their mother has a cellphone, and it’s evolving fast.
