Hipstory

Very interesting blog by a war photographer who has found his iPhone to be a useful casual camera. Some of his images, though technically crude, are very powerful — especially the shot of the feet of a civilian casualty in the Benghazi morgue.

This blog is part of a project borne during my travels as a professional photojournalist. For years, I have worked with bulky digital cameras, always mindful of the technical maneuvers from setting the shutter speed and aperture to editing and toning on a computer screen. In the last two years I have discovered that my iPhone has allowed me to capture scenes without feeling that I am once again on the job. To “point and shoot” has been a liberating experience. It has allowed me to rediscover the excitement of seeing imperfections and happy accidents rendered through the lens of my handheld device. I am able to create imagery, edit, and transmit all the images straight to this blog, creating a modern and efficient workflow for the most inefficient of pursuits – self expression.

The Hipstamatic App must seem weird to non-photographers — a digital app that makes digital images look like they’d been taken by a Kodak Brownie. A cynic would call it retro chic, but there’s more to it than that. See, for example, this picture of mine, snapped in a speeding train.