Artists go mobileDigiarte 2012 Nona EdizioneUn progetto di Lorenzo “logu” Guasti

6 - 18 Ottobre 2012Centro Espositivo Antonio Berti – Via Bernini, 57 - Sesto Fiorentino (FI)

Direttore: Lorenzo Guasti

Ha impaginato il catalogo: Tommaso Cattabrini

Ha montato il video: Massimo Montigiani - Musica: Francesco Bondi

Allestimento in collaborazione con Iacopo Castellani (Officina della Bizzarria)

La foto di copertina è di Seymour Templar

Artists go mobileLa rivoluzione ce l’avete in mano.

La rivoluzione che è in atto in questi anni, in ambito fotografico, ha una portata epocale. Non è un cambio di rotta brusco e sconvolgente e non ha avuto un’azione distruttiva nei confronti delle pratiche già presenti e consolidate nel tessuto culturale dell’arte visiva. È stata una rivoluzione graduale e leggera che però ha di fatto coronato il sogno di Mr. Eastman: mettere nelle mani di tutti, ma proprio tutti, una macchina fotografica.

È evidente che sto parlando della diffusione della fotografia scattata con i telefoni cellulari, conosciuta a livello mondiale con il termine “mobile photography” e che si è diffusa con varie declinazioni la più famosa delle quali è “iphonography” oppure si è identificata con applicazioni di massa come “Instagram”.Questa foto più di ogni altra è l’emblema della rivoluzione:

è stata scattata pochi minuti dopo l’attentato alla metropolitana di Londra il 7 Luglio 2005 e sancisce il potere assoluto della fotografia capillare, poiché nessun giornalista avrebbe avuto il tempo per di andare a fotografare questo evento e invece un signor Nessuno è finito il giorno dopo in prima pagina di su tutti i giornali.È di questi giorni la notizia che Giorgio Di Noto, un

bravo reporter italiano, ha vinto il Premio Pesaresi 2012 per il fotogiornalismo non scattando nemmeno una foto ma rielaborando una serie di scatti scelti tra i milioni pervenuti dai telefoni dei manifestanti della primavera araba.

La mobile photography è una rete densa che avvolge ognuno di noi e copre praticamente ogni evento, piccolo o grande, che avviene sulla terra, : geotaggandolo, rendendolo pubblico e inserendolo nei flussi dei social network.

È interessante sia la fotografia dei signori Nessuno sparsi in tutto il mondo che quotidianamente producono milioni di foto di qualsiasi genere e qualità, sia il sottoinsieme generato da coloro che sono già artisti e usano il telefono come una forma alternativa di espressione, per cimentarsi in progetti paralleli oppure per sentirsi semplicemente svincolati dalla zavorra dell’attrezzatura tecnica e descrivere istanti della loro vita senza perdere quel senso alto dell’estetica.

Digiarte 2012 ha voluto cogliere questo secondo micromondo e mostrarlo al pubblico sperando che la

bellezza di queste foto (che vanno guardate e apprezzate con tutta l’attenzione che meritano dimenticandosi il mezzo con cui sono fatte) vi faccia da trampolino di lancio per immergervi nello sterminato mondo della “mobile photography”.

LORENZO GUASTI Direttore

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Zack AriasDave Hill

David NightingaleSeymour TemplarMisho Baranovic

Martino PietropoliSimone “brahmino” Bramante

Promenad

Agnese MorgantiCorrado Nuccini

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Zack Arias

My name is Zack Arias and I am a full time editorial photographer.

My specialty is niched in press and publicity photography for the music industry.

My first run at being a freelance photographer left me heavily in debt and placed my family on the edge of destruction which eventually tipped right on over despite all attempts to keep that from happening. I came to a place in my career that required me to put the cameras down and take a “job.” After two years of leaving the cameras and selling them off to pay rent and fix beater cars, I was given a chance to come back as a second shooter for a friend of mine who shoots weddings. I took a D100 that he bought me, a 285 flash, an ample amount of faith, and quit my job at Kinkos in October of 2003. I was determined to do things differently this time around.

By God’s grace, I’ve built a strong and thriving business without going into a single dollar of debt! My minimalist approach to

photography turned into a workshop in 2005 that I now teach nationwide. It has become so popular that dates for the workshop regularly sell out months in advance.

On the personal side, my life changed again when I met my love, Meghan. We were married in 2008 and between us we have four boys. Meg can be found giving advice and asking questions through our critique series here on the blog.

http://www.zarias.com/

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Dave Hill

I am a commercial photographer living in Los Angeles with my wife and 2 siamese cats. I was born in 1979 and grew up in San Diego. My love of photography has evolved over the years, and now seems to have branched out to the extreme sides of the spectrum. On one hand, I love doing big, epic digital composites. The possibilities are endless, as are the hours spent on it. It’s an obsession, really.

On the other hand, I yearn for being outside, away from the computer, no lighting equipment, getting back to the kind of photography that got me started in the first place - shooting B/W film. Shooting with such limitations is very liberating.

Either way, as I move forward, I want to focus more and more on telling stories, not only with photographs, but with films as well. I love what I do!

http://www.davehillphoto.com

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David Nightingale

David Nightingale, an internationally acclaimed, award winning photographer and instructor, is the Creative Director of Chromasia Training Limited – a photographic and post-production training company, specialising in online photography and Photoshop training, one-to-one tuition, and the delivery of high-quality workshops around the world. His corporate clients include the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, the Arts Council in England, the Van Volxem winery in Germany, and Sony, UK.

He is also an instructor at the Gulf Photo Plus training events in Dubai and runs his popular Art of Black and White Photography online course at both the Perfect Picture School of Photography in the US and on Udemy. He lives in both Blackpool, a seaside town in the North West of England, and Veliko Tarnovo in central Bulgaria, with his wife Libby and seven children.

His photoblog – currently ranked as the 16th most influential

UK blog – has received numerous nominations and awards including Winner of the Most Popular Photoblog category in the 2008 Photoblog Awards and Best European Photoblog in the 2007 Photoblog Awards. The most recent images from his blog are reproduced to the right (click any of the thumbnails to see a larger version).

David has also authored three books: Baby Photography Now (2007), published by ILEX Press in the UK and Lark Books in the US; Practical HDR: The Complete Guide to Creating High Dynamic Range Images with Your Digital SLR (2009), published by ILEX Press in the UK and Focal Press in the US; and Extreme Exposure: Advanced Techniques for Creative Digital Photography (2010), published by ILEX Press in the UK and Amphoto Books in the US.

Recent appearances elsewhere include his Dramatic Post-Production workshop for Creative Live in Seattle, an interview with Flush the Fashion, a guest blog post on Scott Kelby’s

Photoshop Insider, and an interview with Michael Zang on petapixel.com.

He is also a regular contributor at 500px.com, where he posts a variety of his favourite images.

David believes in the intelligent application of photo enhancing techniques and brings to his students, not only the technical skills to create stunning images, but also the discerning eye and critical judgement of what is needed to improve an image.

www.chromasia.com

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Seymour Templar

Seymour Templar’s work has been published in numerous online publications, but this New York-based photographer is genuinely humble about his photographic beginnings, referring to himself as an “accidental photographer.” He says that much of what he knows about photography he learned from other photographers on Flickr.“Digital photography also has been a good teacher, allowing me to try things out without second thoughts before being emboldened enough to try medium format and emulsions (film),” said Templar.I recently spoke with him about his recent project called Social Light. Below are highlights from our conversation.

Q: Where did the idea for Social Light originate?A: The series came about quite naturally, after noticing that I started to have a few photos with this curious, unusual light on people’s face, at night. I have always liked moving between being a participant and an observer. After noticing the emerging trend, I started paying a bit more attention to

it, but it’s only after a dozen or so images that the sociological meaning of that specific activity became apparent to everyone. Q: How long have you been shooting this series, and how did you create these images?A: (I) think it has only been a month or two, even if I probably have shot something accidentally that would fit in the series. I used to shoot mostly during the day, on breaks from my daytime job, but recently I have been busy and had only nights to shoot for my own pleasure. I have this wonderful camera that allows me to make images in a very unobstructive way, in low, low light, and automatically searched for subjects in interesting lights. I was instinctively attracted to that intimate light provided by these smartphones.

Q: You mentioned being unobstructive. Has anyone ever told you not to photograph them?A: It’s been extremely rare, maybe once in a thousand times. I usually do not disrupt any ongoing interaction, but often seek visual acknowledgement the person photographed is aware (though after the fact) that I took a photo. Most time they are very interested in the reasons I would take their photo, and curious about the result, and even then ask me to take a straight portrait, but I have never been asked to delete an image. Sometimes the bar or club I am in asks me to not take photographs, and that’s fine.

I have been asked that question hundreds of time. I think the photographer’s demeanor is crucial: I am respectful, engaging and therefore free to do as I wish. I am lucky this way. I am grateful people let me do my thing without fear. It took a lot of courage when I started photographing people, because I am fairly shy, but the camera, the project provides a buffer, a connection.

Q: What are you ultimately trying to capture with your Social Light series? A: I was first attracted by the “dramatic” lighting provided by the smartphones: the down-side-up glow is both reminiscent of a certain light found in old paintings, like in some Toulouse Lautrec or Monet or even in the Italian Chiaroscurists, as well as the way it isolates and emphasizes a face. There is nothing I could do to not be attracted to these correlations. The sociological aspect, the social commentary came as a result, as it became clear that it was more than just pretty lights. The fairly new activity of constantly checking our phones, I mean ascertaining our dual existence, both in real life and in the virtual world of social networks, switching from the people present in flesh and blood and the uninterrupted conversation with “friends” we have across time zones and borders, is an interesting phenomenon. I was first stunned by the faculty we have to isolate ourselves for a few seconds in the middle of a loud, crowded bar, and immediately become oblivious of our surrounding, letting candidly the virtual

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world reflect on our faces. The social masks fall for a fleeting moment, and our pleasure, our worries or sorrows, show for anyone to see. That is the moment I am trying to capture. I see people’s soul.

Q: I understand you went to school to be a painter. Tell us about your background and what you do currently?A: I studied Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium, and all my life I have kept a practice in painting. When I moved to New York in 1992, I was literally shocked by the commercialism in the art milieu, and instead started making furniture in my studio, abandoning the idea of making a living with painting. I then became a design director for a home furnishing company, which I left early this year, when photography became so important in my life.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add that I haven’t asked?A: I was talking about it to someone in Tel Aviv during a recent interview, and she said something interesting. I am not sure I understood correctly but she compared these phone lights to the kind of light found in churches, and that we treat our phones like little personal gods. We pray to them, we tell them our secrets, our hopes. I love that comparison: our own personal little gods

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Misho Baranovic

Misho Baranovic has worked as a photographer for many years and is prominent in the emerging practice of mobile photography. He is interested in how mobile photography can be used for community building, in particular, helping people understand and express their relationship with the urban environment. Misho is also a qualified social planner and community engagement practitioner.

As one of the world’s leading mobile photographers, Misho’s street photography has been exhibited internationally at group exhibitions in Sydney, Australia, Oakland, California, New York, and Paola, Italy. In 2011 he held his first solo exhibition, New Melbourne, at the Matt Irwin Gallery, Melbourne. In 2012, Misho co-curated (with Oliver Lang) the Instaburb book project, documenting Australian suburbia through Instagram. Misho has taught workshops on mobile photography in Melbourne and Berlin.

Misho and his work have been featured in numerous print, online, and television media. In 2012 he appeared on Australian screens as a guest judge on ABC Television’s Photo Finish.

He is a founding member of Mobile Photo Group, an international collective of mobile photographers dedicated to promoting their work and presenting mobile photography as an important and evolving art form.

Misho currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his girlfriend, Seanna, and their cat, Taj.You can connect with Misho on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or visit his website:

www.mishobaranovic.com

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Martino Pietropoli

Martino Pietropoli è nato 38 anni fa a Rovigo, dove vive e lavora come architetto. Fotografa da quando aveva 12 anni.Le sue foto sono state quasi tutte riprese con iPhone, l’unica (o quasi) macchina fotografica che usa, per la sua immediatezza e discrezione.Pensa che una buona foto sia il ritratto di uno stato di grazia, di stupore e di sospensione della credulità nell’osservatore.

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Simone “brahmino” Bramante

Simone “Brahmino” BramanteArt DirectorBologna / Italy

Finding ideas, looking around, studying the past, searching, waiting a minute, thinking, storytelling, sharing, enjoying.These are the right activities to describe my days.And shooting. Shooting and loving.

http://cargocollective.com/simonebramante

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Agnese Morganti

Agnese “Aggie” Morganti (1985) è una fotografa italiana che da anni segue e documenta la vita della comunità cinese, con particolare attenzione alla realtà dell’insediamento asiatico nella città di Prato. Laureata in Fotografia a Firenze (Libera Accademia di Belle Arti) e a Londra (MA Photojournalism, University of Westminster) Agnese collabora con magazine e testate locali e nazionali ed insieme a Malia Zheng è autrice di WGR Project, un photobook digitale per iPad dedicato alle storie dei giovani cinesi di seconda generazione in Italia.

Oltre all’attività fotografica, Agnese scrive per Jumper Photo Magazine ed insegna Fotografia presso Libera Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze.

www.aggiemorganti.com

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Corrado Nuccini

Nasco ai piedi della Pietra di Bismantova, appennino Reggiano, precisamente all’ospedale S.Anna di Castelnovo ne’ Monti. Il 14 luglio del 1974, giorno di festa nazionale in Francia, non qui e già da questo si può capire qualcosa. Mia madre aveva ventun anni e mio padre pochi di più, lei bella, lui meno, una situazione ricorrente.Suono la chitarra nei Giardini di Mirò, un gruppo che vorrebbe essere un po’ punk, un po’ cantautorale, un po’ di ricerca ed un po’ pop. In fin dei conti ha molte anime ed io -da più di dieci anni- cerco di far risaltare le mia sensibilità. Da un paio di dischi canto pure. Mia madre quando m’ha sentito prima s’è commossa, il giorno dopo m’ha detto. “Ma se trovaste una bella cantante?”.Scrivo dall’età di sei anni, da quando il sistema scolastico m’ha obbligato. Ho iniziato a dare un senso a quegli scarabocchi da sinistra a destra, faticando molto a scrivere correttamente: devo fare attenzione a non commettere errori d’ortografia. Sbaglio le doppie, dimentico gli apostrofi, le parole accentate, inverto “c” con “q”. A otto anni ho rischiato di annegare in

mare, a San Vincenzo, vicino a Livorno, in villeggiatura coi miei. Sono stato salvato dal bagnino in extremis e tutti mi fecero un grosso applauso appena tornato sul bagnasciuga, tra le braccia del mio salvatore, come se fosse merito mio. Alle scuole superiori ho preso nove e mezzo in un tema sull’Orlando Furioso. Ancor oggi resta la mia migliore performance con la scrittura. Sullo slancio di quel successo mi sono inscritto a Lettere e Filosofia, dove con alterne fortune mi sono laureato.Che altro dire? Faccio spesso domande e non aspetto le risposte e di solito la gente s’incazza per questo. Io provo a cambiare ma ci riesco solo per brevi periodi. Mi però piace ascoltare quello che dice la gente nei ristoranti. Adoro osservare i dettagli, quelle cose che rischiano di cadere inosservate: come si appoggia il tacco delle scarpe, come si sfiorano le dita delle mani perché ritrovo, in queste piccole azioni, delle fessure attraverso cui sbirciare l’intimo umano ma forse sono solo uno sbullonato.Mi piacerebbe un giorno alzarmi ed essere come Leonard

Cohen, Pier Vittorio Tondelli, Silvio D’Arzo, Bob Dylan, Arvo Part, John Fante, Fabrizio De Andrè, Michel Platini, Maria Callas, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Andrea Pazienza, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gino Paoli, Roland Barthes, Beppe Fenoglio, Ornella Vanoni, Mario Monicelli, Miles Davis e tutti quelli che sono riusciti ad affascinarmi con le parole, i suoni o le loro gesta. Anche uno alla volta. Gadda dice che le “le parole sono ancelle d’una Circe bagasciona e tramutano in bestia chi si lascia affascinare dal loro tintinnio”. Spero allora -per lungo tempo- di mantenere il mio stato ferino sull’onda di quel suono che come un sortilegio mi rende prigioniero di un incantesimo, di un turbamento, una passione mai esplorata prima.

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“Hola, siamo i “Promenàd”. Il nostro nome potrebbe sembrarvi un errore ma non lo e’, anche se la sua origine e’ puramente accidentale in quanto abbiamo aggiunto alla parola francese “promenade” (passeggiata) un pizzico di “ibericita’ “.

Questo mix etnico riflette l’eterogeneita’ dei membri del nostro gruppo, comprendendo territori dall’America Latina all’Indocina.

Questa multietnicita’ si e’ convogliata anche nella musica : ci piace sperimentare varie tipi di generi e riadattarli nel nostro stile!

Adoriamo l’atmosferma calma e malinconica del genere acustico ed il ritmo della bossanova latina.Agustin Cornejo, Eugenio Ferrato,Erika Boschi, Linda Santu Lama”

Promenad‘

Artists go mobileThe revolution you have it in hand.

Revolution that is taking place in recent years in the field of photography, has an epoch-making. It is not a shocking and an abrupt change of course and did not have a destructive action against practices that already exist and consolidated in the cultural texture of visual art. It has been a gradual and light revolution but has effectively crowned the dream of Mr. Eastman: put in the hands of everyone, absolutely everyone, a camera.

It’s clear that I’m talking about the spread of photo taken with mobile phones , known worldwide by the term “mobile photography” and that it has spread with various forms the most famous of which is “iphonography” or is identified with mass-market applications as “Instagram.”

This picture more than any other is the ‘emblem of the revolution

it have taken a few minutes after the attack on the London Underground July 7 2005 and establishes the absolute power of photography capillary, as any journalist would have time to get to photograph this event and instead a Mr. Nobody finished the next day on the front page of every newspaper.

And it’s about these days the news that Giorgio Di Noto, an Italian reporter, won the 2012 Pesaresi Prize

for photojournalism even if he never took a photo but reworking a series of shots chosen among the millions received from the phones of protesters of the Arab Spring.

The mobile photography is a dense network that surrounds each of us and covers virtually every event, large or small, that happens on earth, geotagging, make it public and inserting it in the flow of social networks.

It’s interesting the photography of Mr Nobody around the world who daily produce millions of photos of any kind and quality and the subset generated by those who are already artists and use the phone as an alternative form of expression to engage in parallel projects or simply feel free from the burden of the technical and describe moments of their lives without losing the high sense of aesthetics.

Digiarte 2012 wanted to take this second micro-world and show it to the public, hoping that the beauty of these photos (which must be looked at and appreciated with all the attention they deserve forgetting the means by which they are made) will face as a springboard

to immerse yourself in the endless world of “mobile photography”.

LORENZO GUASTI Director

Artists go mobileNote

48Stampato presso: Grafiche Gelli - Firenze - www.grafichegelli.it

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