Electronic media have a momentum that can sometimes seem daunting. But they can also make life easier, faster, and fun. Cell phone cameras have ushered in a new age of art in the form of social media photo sharing, video making, and even documentation.
The C Gallery in Los Alamos is celebrating the open nature of the digital age with an upcoming group show titled “That Significant Thing or Moment.” The exhibition is a cell-phone-photography-only show, with Allan Hancock College photography instructor David Passage acting as curator.
“Right now the iPhone is my camera of choice,” he said. “I always have it, and I love it; I use it all the time.”
Passage included two photographs he took with his iPhone in the Allan Hancock College Fine Arts Faculty Art Show, currently showing in the college’s Ann Foxworthy Gallery. Connie Rhode, C Gallery owner, bought one of the photographs for her collection. She was interested in holding a group show at the C Gallery and, after becoming aware of Passage and his work with his cell phone camera, approached him to collaborate and curate.
“We want art to be fun!” she said. “I don’t want it to be isolated and elite; I want it to be woven into the fabric of everyday living because, my thing is, art is everywhere.”
Passage, who will be curating the show on his iPad, will receive the entries by e-mail between April 18 and 21. Photographs must stick with the theme of the show, which is also the title. Another requirement is that the photos, if edited, must be edited either on a phone or tablet. Anyone with a cell phone camera can submit a photo.
“Photography has always been a democratic medium,” Passage said. “It’s the largest folk art since it began, and it’s been that way since the introduction of the first Kodak camera in 1900, and it’s still that way.”
An entry fee of $23 is required for each submission, due to the gallery having to pay for the printing, dry mount framing on foam core, back framing, wiring, and hanging of each work. Each photograph will be printed at 12 by 12 inches and arranged on panels with other photographs.
“It’s kind of an elegant way for a gallery to do it,” Passage said, “so we are basically going to lay out grids.”
With all the space available for the show, between 80 and 90 artists will be included, Rhodes explained. Each piece will be up for sale by bid, with the artist and gallery splitting the proceeds 50/50. Unsold works can be picked up by artists at the end of the exhibition in June.
“I like the gallery to maintain its artistic identity and be more unified in its show,” Rhodes said. “When you have a group show, it gets difficult to keep visual unity; that is part of why we are going to frame this show.”
Passage, who’s had a lot of experience jurying photography shows, will be selecting the photos based on their adherence to the theme, quality, style, and skill. The concentration is on the “significance” of the thing or moment, whatever it may be.
“It has to be to the theme,” he said. “So, you know, sunsets and pictures of flowers, well, it’s going to have to be something a little more than that.”
The last few generations of smart phones have been outdoing themselves in the quality of their cameras. Some smart phones reach HD quality for photographs and video.
“My iPhone has an eight megapixel camera,” Passage said. “And I always tell my students, the most significant camera in the 20th century is on the Hubble Space Telescope, the greatest way we understand our world and surroundings, and that’s just a four megapixel camera.”
Also, with the advent of such apps as Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, people can instantaneously share photos with friends, family, and followers.
“I think the impact is going to be inestimable,” Passage said. “As we speak, do you know how many photographs are flying through the atmosphere, the cloud?”
In the digitally charged age, a medium as historically democratic as photography is enjoying a resurgence; people who may not have normally invested in a quality camera are enjoying taking quality photos with their phones.
“Now we’ve gotten rid of the filters, the curator or the publisher, so I think we are seeing more interesting pictures,” Passage said. “But we are also wading through dreck, but I think people can do that on their own by choosing who they are looking at. Democracy is messy that way, but you get everything along with it.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne’s iPhone is full of significant photos. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 11-18, 2013.
