About
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The medium of photography, more than any other artistic medium, has always had a close relationship to science and technology. With each evolution of electronic devices has come another set of materials with which to express imagery. Images are no longer translated from light sensitive materials to paper but from numeric codes to computer screens. The new tools are causing a fundamental shift in how the artist communicates with the world. And now with the cell phone camera more people than ever are documenting their lives with photos making artists out of everybody. With the development of blogs and the condensed forms of blogging with such websites as Facebook and Twitter each person is recording information at an extremely rapid pace, and the cell phone is the primary tool for approaching life with such immediacy. Combined with the power of the cell phone’s instant nature these living diaries give a forum for people to speak visually in a way people have never been able to do until this point in history. More people than ever have access to this information and it is not restricted to a region or an economic class, it is a collectively global experience.
The Information Age is constantly being upgraded with more information overwhelming us with more and more facts, figures, and stories. Photographs are an integral part to this process and are no longer a specifically tangible object, but have become ephemeral, impermanent, and in essence visual sketches of life being lived in the present. The virtual world seems to becoming as corporeal as reality and the photograph seems to validate it.
In 2007 I noticed how people were changing and responding to the acceleration of how imagery was less something to be saved and more of a message to be dispersed. I also noticed the intimacy of the cell phone and the desire for people to connect using it as a way to do so. Parts of my observations were inspired by my participation in an exhibit exclusively using cell phones. It motivated me with a desire to bring the concept to Atlanta and this year is the year to do so. The exhibit will open in September for Atlanta Celebrates Photography, but before then there is a lot of fabulous photos to be taken.
The show process will begin in the middle of June and continue for 8 weeks. Each week I will send out 2 assignments. The first assignment will be very open. It may range from a picture to a word to a statement. Each participant will have the week to interpret the assignment unless the assignment is, “What are you doing at this moment.” The second assignment will take place at a specific time each week. The time will change each week. The photos must be taken using a camera phone. There may also be “extra credit” assignments that take place during the 8 weeks. These “extra credit” will speak to the spontaneity of the experience. I may also text the assignments. The assignments will portray how we interact with information, and the response we give it through imagery. During the week I would like each person to email me the images as they complete them with their name, date, and time the photo was captured.
I am hoping to have a minimum of 30 participants that will span the globe. Most will be photographers, but a few are painters, and others are not artists at all but regularly use the technology. I will also have a blog that will include selected photos from the week as well as any verbal dialog inspired by the involvement. I will also encourage people to continue to use their phones to capture images throughout the duration of the participation.
At the end of August I would like each photographer to print his or her images no bigger than 2 inches in length and width to mimic the cell phone screen they use. I would like each photographer to cut out the images so that they are borderless. The show will install the week of September 14th and open later that week on September 19th at Cherry Lion Gallery off of Howell Mill Road.
For the installation I wanted to group the photos based on the times the photos were taken. My intent with the installation is to portray the contraction and expansion of information and how the cell phone photos represent how our very visually dominated culture interacts.
This exhibit is meant to be very collaborative. I encourage discussion with me and the other artists. I would like this to be filled with fun and inspire joy as well as beautiful art.