A new lineup of inductees to the much coveted International Photography Hall of Fame was announced last Thursday for World Photography Day. Amongst the eight culture shocking individuals was an unlikely but familiar face. The late Steve Jobs, co founder and visionary of Apple Inc.
There is no question to the iPhone’s impact on the photography world. That tiny camera and sensor revolutionised the snapshot Continue reading
In a fascinating endurance project from the comfort of his own home, cycling and tech enthusiast Aaron Puzey has developed a ‘game‘ whereby he can cycle the length of Britain, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats using panoramas appropriated from Google Streetview.
Puzey’s journey began on the 15th May 2016. Almost three months later he’s somewhere close to the halfway point of Manchester. What is remarkable to see during the daily video diaries is how Puzey encounters problems such as nausea, Continue reading
In 2011 Sabato Visconti removed the memory card from his digital camera to inspect his photographs and discovered an unusual glitch among the files. Random zeroes had been added to Jpeg files. What should have been simple reproductions of any one given scene turned out to be visualisations of his technology dreaming. It was accidental, but profound and this simple glitch lead Visconti on a path he now embraces; breaking software to push the boundaries of photographic imagery.
Visconti’s latest project concerns the popular social networking app SnapChat, most famous for its ephemeral approach to photographs that ‘self destruct’ Continue reading
There are hidden creatures in our skies. Long, mysterious oscillating bodies, suspended in the air with wings marching in formation in the way a millipede’s thousand legs moves in waves. But these air bound beings aren’t visible in the decisive moment, they’re hidden within the passage of time.
Xavi Bou (b. 1979) is a fashion and advertising photographer working from Barcelona who has developed an interest in the flight of birds. In the Continue reading
We start August off with an amusing series of photographs from the web constructed in the hit game Pokemon Go. For those unfamiliar, a certain creature named ‘Diglett’ has been popping up around Pokemon trainer’s bedrooms under the most peculiar of places…
What’s actually happening here isn’t quite as invasive as it might first seem. Within the game is an augmented reality option that places a wild Pokemon within a frame captured on camera for selfies and such. If angled just right you can have Pikachu Continue reading
The photographic ‘faceswap’ is by far the most surreal byproduct of evolving digital photographic technology and its usefulness has yet to be proven. Once the go to tool for the likes of National Enquirer and Daily Sport to reproduce fake celebrity nudes its prominence on apps like SnapChat and MSQRD has pushed the weird AI tech mainstream. Now Dreambit hopes to achieve a useful tool rather than photographs that’ll confuse historians decades from now.
Imagine sitting in a hairdressers and being asked by your stylist your preferred cut, but instead of having to think on your seat, you’re presented with different options on the mirror in front of you. Curly hair, Continue reading
Christmas morning came, gifts were unwrapped and like many middle aged parents who find most joy binge watching a new Netflix series when the children are asleep I opened the brand new Apple TV box, a gift from my wife. We already had the previous unit however this newer model included the App store; another ingenious way of getting the zombie nation to spend more money. Lest I continue this droll sense of pain for it led me to discover a beautiful game called Lumino City.
We’re not a fan of spoilers, so if my enthusiasm already has you convinced head to the bottom of this post where you’ll find a link to the download options.
Within minutes of clicking through the opening scenes you’re thrown into a wonderful world that is so quirky and lifelike it has to be built by hand. In fact the entire city you begin to explore Continue reading
On Tuesday we published an article describing a lucrative photography position available at the US National Park Service with the tag line Skills Required: Large Format Photography. Garnering significant interest from the analog community and poking the never ending coals of the film vs digital debate the post went viral through re-blogs, retellings of the story and different spins to receive worldwide attention. The term “Ansel Adams” an inevitable connection to be made began trending on Twitter and continues to do as of writing this article.
The story essentially highlighted exciting proof that film was not dead – despite the phrase having being uttered in both positive and negative forms for the past three decades. This, coupled with Continue reading
It’s a thought often provoked by contemporary photographers creating surreal images with their new found technology. The absolute speed and ease manipulation can be obtained on a colour digital photograph is frightening nowadays and more and more agencies are beginning to notice and put up safeguards to protect against, for want of a better word, lying.
So when veteran war photographer, Don McCullin, nigh on superstar of the photography world speaks up and proclaims the digital domination of photography is “a totally lying experience” you have to stop and take note.
In conversation with Isaac Julien at the art fair Photo London, the Guardian reports McCullin discussed a wide range of topics with regards to photography including his own problems Continue reading
Music videos can be a hive of experimental photography. Often a director will take an idea they’ve seen and put it into practise to produce surreal often breathtaking results using unorthodox camera techniques.
Richie Johnston is one such filmmaker that demonstrates how subverting a traditional photographic process called slit scan photography can be used to create mesmerising visuals for the musician’s audience.
The film was made to coincide with the Just Music’s Ambient Zone 2 compilation and clocks in at almost an hour in length.
Throughout the performance ballet dancer Rachel Bodger moves in a slow, rhythmic motion drawing on the obvious quirk of photography to elongate her body and draw patterns within the frame. The result is hard to turn away from. After a few minutes it’s clear that the dancer’s improvisation is geared towards the photography used rather than the music, although it compliments it perfectly.
We compiled a few screenshots that show the different patterns Bodger and Johnston’s collaboration achieved and at Phogotraphy we truly think they are marvellous!
If you’re interested in slit scan photography and want to try to do something similar in a project of your own, Richie Johnston put together a short ‘making of’ video to guide us through the thoughts and processes involved in the production. It’s well worth a look, maybe more so than even the highly polished film above.
Check it out:
Video and stills used with explicit permission of the Richie Johnston.
Phogotraphy 