The Rx Gallery's "Mobile Phone Photo Show" (MPPS) has posted more than 1,500 camera phone photos from 350 participants in 50 countries (including me; No. 8; see left and click to expand) and the gallery expects to receive some 10,000 images before the exhibit is over, according to an interesting article in The San Francisco Chronicle.
I wrote about the MPPS before it began, and the show has generated a fair amount of publicity.
Short, casual visual jottings
The article, by Jeanne Carstensen, begins:
"In the post Abu-Ghraib era of digital photography, what stands out about the Mobile Phone Photography Show at RX Gallery in the Tenderloin is the abundance of G-rated images: photo-booth-like head shots, portraits of kids and pets, quirky close-ups of half-eaten meals and untied shoelaces, dreamy landscapes, classic tourist attractions, silly signage -- in short, casual visual jottings from inside the quiteness of daily life."Another thing that stands out is the insubstantiality of the images, the sense of impermanence. This is not an exhibition of framed photographs to be purchased and hung on your wall, but a show that emphasizes the communication aspect of the new wireless photography, the thrill of zapping a photo to a friend in Brooklyn as you stand on a street corner in London.
"Who knows if you'll ever look at that photo again?"
20 seconds of fame
The camera phone photos are displayed on monitors and screens for 20 seconds. They also are printed into passport-sized photos and pasted on the gallery's wall. In addition, the gallery has a live Webcam pointed at the walls. But as the Cartstensen says, "Given the low resolution of the webcams, which are themselves focused on the low-resolution camera-phone photos on the wall, it's a rather blurry offering, but it's intriguing for the sense of interconnectedness it provides."
Cartstensen says the low resolution photos have a "homey appeal" that's reminiscent of early Poloroid photos and photos from the Holga (never heard of that one) camera.
She continues, "Although it's cutting-edge technology that makes the RX show possible, the cumulative impact of all these sweet, diarylike snapshots is a lingering nostalgia -- perhaps for a time when technology didn't mediate every second of our lives."
Hot issues not tackled
The article notes that two of the hottest issues in camera phones -- privacy/security and the ability to publicize actions the government doesn't want known -- aren't addressed in the exhibition.
But should an art gallery deal with these issues? I have suggested to journalist Xeni Jardin, one of the developers of the long-postponed SENT camera phone exhibit at Sixspace (now scheduled for July 9 - 17), that the exhibit could be an opportunity to hold events to discuss the ramifications of camera phones. (She never replied.)
I think it would fascinating for an art gallery sponsoring a camera phone exhibit to include such educational events. Perhaps it's more likely that a corporate sponsor, such as a cellular operator, handset vendor or software developer, would be interested in a camera phone show combined with discussions.
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