The art of mobile photography comes to Spain this September thanks to an initiative by the Hub Madrid, that seeks to promote this new way of photographing with the final goal of establishing a lasting connection between the community of mobile photographers, and their Spanish audience.

What began a few years ago as an innovative way of capturing and sharing images via mobile phones continues to attract people, and it has even been featured in specialized magazines such as American Photo Magazine (see the November 2009 issue). Until now, these photographers have gathered in a virtual community characterized by an impressively strong commitment toward this new photographic vision. “I was captivated by how fast these photographers create and share their work as well as by the power of the images captured by such a “rudimentary” shooting tool”, states Rocío Nogales-Muriel, the person in charge of the first show of this kind in Spain.

Four representatives of mobile photographers have been invited to participate in this inaugural eyephoneography show. The only native Spanish and professional photographer included in the exhibit, Sion Fullana, lives in New York and can be considered together with another invited artist, Greg Schmigel, pioneer in this type of photography. They do “streetphotography” and were two of the four mobile photographers included in the above mentioned American Photo Magazine article. Fullana focuses his peculiar look on the urban reality of New York City, which acquires a powerful halo of mystery and admiration. Out of this unique stage emerge familiar but unrepeatable topics and subjects surrounded by a delicate chromatic selection. In Fullana’s words, “one of my biggest assets is how passionate I am with what I do, and I recommend some of that to everyone! It’s not about snapping shots of everything that looks cute. It’s about putting effort, patience and love into developing an eye for subjects or situations that will make a compelling picture, one that has something to say or can express a feeling. His homonymous page was one of the first to show mobile photography next to his traditional production and it quickly became an influential platform from where he inspired hundred of followers worldwide. 
 
The other mobile photography pioneer, Greg Schmigel, offers to those passionate about American cities and photography the chance to enjoy the heart beat of these urban jungles through his black and white images in his blog “Just what I see”. These images evoke frozen frames from noir films or comic strips that form our visual memory while inviting us to observe without being observed; to live a moment captured and exposed before our eyes thank to the expertise of someone who describes his photographic creation as a personal therapy. “I don't set out to produce art, per se. There's something special and unique about shooting street. It's real. It's true. It's slices of life as we see it ... and many times, slices of life as the rest of us miss it”, whispers Schmigel.

Behind the nickname MissPixels hides Isabelle Gagné, the third photographer included in eyephoneography #1. This Canadian graphic designer builds images with impossible topics, angles and compositions taken out of a fairy tale dream, all of them wrapped in textures so plastic that they evoke the materiality of painting. “Be it for my illustrations, my paintings or my iphoneographies, I choose consciously to modify, to alter the regular order of colors by making them explode. I make the basic colors vibrate, contrast and burst. In my iphoneographies, the images are captured spontaneously; I look openly for a pictorial accident. I then amplify this circumstance as if it were developed chemically. Only my chemical substances are the apps, explains MissPixels about her work.
 
The work of Marco La Civita, the fourth eyephoneography #1 photographer, has been featured in off-line shows devoted to mobile photography. Italian-born and based in Madrid, he is an aeronautics scientist who has been taking pictures for many years. The difference is that now he dares to share his images with other mobile photographers and the rest of the world thanks to his iPhone. In his iPhoneblography blog, La Civita posts only “photos shot, processed, and uploaded with an iPhone”. “Someone said that my photography is a ‘chromatic and compositional research’. Touching the chromatic and compositional sensibility of other people is my aim”, muses La Civita about his work. His pictures are the result of a curiosity for the objects and textures that inhabit our streets, whose aesthetic and symbolism he captures. Against this special backdrop, La Civita poses his eye upon revealing details, unthinkable angles and secret relationships among our everyday objects.

This first event will take place on the 17th September 2010 at the Hub in Madrid, Spain.

Additional information about the selected pictures and activities planned for the opening weekend will be published during the next months. In the meantime, interviews to the artists and members of the selection committee as well as other information will be regularly posted on the eyephoneography blog, Facebook and Twitter.

The full press release can be downloaded here.