Mobile Photography Awards update

Every art form gets its beginning somewhere. For Daniel Berman, founder of the Mobile Photography Awards (MPA), now is the time for mobile phone photography and art to have its time in the spotlight.

“The Mobile Photography Awards were designed to celebrate and focus attention on the explosive growth of mobile phone photography and art,” says Berman. “The majority of pictures these days are taken on smartphones and there are many talented people in the world who are dedicating their time to this craft, creating amazing art. We want to showcase this to the fine art world and get noticed by even more collectors.”

Based on the feedback and traction from the MPA’s inaugural awards in 2011, the market appears to be hungry for fresh art. Eight of the winners from last years curated exhibit sold their work for $1300 each, setting the record for fine art prices paid for limited edition mobile photography prints.

To up the ante this year, a Grand Prize of $3,000 will be awarded to the MPA Photographer of the Year, making the MPA award the biggest of its kind in the genre. Juried by the top photographers in the field, the winning 20 entries, runners-up and founder’s choices, will be part of an international gallery and exhibit tour. The 2013 tour will begin at the SOHO Gallery for Digital Art in New York City from February 22 to March 8.

“This is a passion project for me,” says Bernman. “I strive to promote mobile photography artists who really take their craft seriously. If you consider yourself an artist and want to build relationships with galleries and collectors, this is the place for you.”

The second annual awards are now open for submissions through December 15, 2012. Entry fees are $20 for 3, $30 for 5, $50 for 9 or $100 for 20.

Entries will be judged on originality, creativity and adherence to the contest theme. The 20 categories for the competition include such traditional photographic genres as Landscapes, Self- Portraits, and Street Photography as well as uniquely modern areas like Visual FX and Digital Painting. New showcase categories this year are the JUXT Photo Journalism Award for mobile photography and the ArtHaus Photo Essay - a sub-component to the MPA with it’s own award and exhibit at ArtHaus in San Francisco for one month in early 2013.

About the Mobile Photography Awards: The Mobile Photography Awards were founded to promote the global phenomenon of mobile, or cell-phone, photography and art. We aim to recognize and celebrate the creatives working in the medium. With world-class exhibits, competitions and open gallery calls, the MPA is the world's largest event of it's kind. For more information, visit www.mobilephotoawards.com or the MPA blog www.the-mpas.com.

The Mobile Photo Awards: and the winner is…

The MPA is thrilled to announce INDIFFERENCE as our first Grand Prize winner. Stefano Pessarelli's piece is a soulful and inspiring image of innocence, a powerful moment in time between the photographer and the two children. The contrast between the delight of the girl showing her toy and the seeming "Indifference" of the boy in the background digs deep into the heart of childhood, friendship and, indeed, humanity itself. -  Founder Daniel Berman

"The eyes are the window to your soul" - that's what I like about it, the pure innocence in them. I knew it was "the" shot immediately when I saw it. - Jurist Aik Beng Chia

The mobile phone camera has revolutionized photojournalism. This picture is a wonderful example of why you should always have your camera with you. A powerful and relevant image. - Jurist Dixon Hamby

The runner-up in the first "Mobile Photo Awards" was this stunning image called AWESOME SAUCE, by Sara Tune.

For more information on the "Mobile Photo Awards", head over to the MPA website here.

The Mobile Photo Awards: and the category winners are…

Above: Subway Singers by Erin McCann

On December 26th 2011, the Mobile Photo Awards announced their category winners from over 2200 entries. The categories for the competition included such traditional photographic genres as Landscapes, Self-Portraits, and Street Photography as well as uniquely modern areas such as Digital Art and software enhanced Abstractions.

Above: Dandelion Wishes by Anthony Docherty

The competition was designed to celebrate the explosive growth of cell-phone photography and art. The winning 25 entries will be part of a traveling exhibit alongside images from the jury and a select few honorable mentions. The exhibit will premiere with a 3 month engagement at San Francisco’s prestigious ArtHaus gallery beginning in April of 2012.

Above: Awesome Sauce by Sara Tune

“Thanks to the advancements in lenses and image sensors for mobile phones, and the eco-system of developers who have created photo processing applications, the creativity of mobile photography knows no bounds,” said Daniel Berman, founder of the Mobile Photo Awards and a noted mobile photographer known as Reservoir_Dan. “With this competition and open gallery call we now give mobile photographers and artists the chance to take that creativity even further and show the art world and public just how inspiring these images can be. We’re excited to share the unique opportunity and exposure that this contest will give to the participants.”

Above: Image Pic #35 by Souichi Furousho

Entries were judged based on originality, creativity, and adherence to the contest theme. The jury was comprised of 15 of today’s most celebrated mobile photographers and includes widely published and well-known iPhoneographers such as Aik Beng Chia, Alan Kastner, Robert-Paul Jansen, and Nettie Edwards.

Above: One More for the Bronx by Jordan Miles

The iPhoneography blog is please to be able to show some of the winning photos, whilst the full list of category winners and their photos can be viewed at mobilephotoawards.com, and where the overall winner will be announced later this week.

Call for Entries: The "Mobile Photography Awards" and Gallery Exhibition

The "Mobile Photography Awards" is a new photo contest and gallery exhibition. The brainchild of renowned iPhoneographer/Photographer Daniel Berman, the Mobile Photography Awards [MPA] aims to attract entrants from around the world. Entry fees are $20 USD for 3 images or $30 USD for 5 images, with winners winning various prizes from a $500 Apple Store gift card, to photo albums from Keepsy and software from Macphun, with the top 25 winners featuring in 3 gallery exhibitions [2 in the US and 1 in Spain].

There are 15 different categories, ranging from Black & White to Digital Art & Collage, with each of these categories having there own well known head judge who specialises in the category field.

The contest runs until the end of November, so you've got plenty of time to enter.

For more information on the rules and categories, please visit the Mobile Photography Awards website.