iPhoneographer of the Day ARCHiPhone
ARCHiPhone is one of the best known iPhoneographers from the far east. His work is distinctively unique and easily recognizable as one of his own. Despite English not being his native language, Arch was gracious enough to come on iPhoneogenic and share his iPhoneography story.
Arch, take it away‌
EC: Where are you from? Tell me about yourself? A: I am from Japan. I work an engineer. After having bought an iPhone, I took up photography. At that time, I did not know the word “iPhoneography”. I came to like photography while taking photographs with the iPhone. That’s when I bought a HOLGA (a film camera). I like to take photographs with a HOLGA now. However, I still take a number of photos with my iPhone.
EC: How did you get into iPhoneography? A: At fist I was using the app “Bigcanvas PhotoShare” on my iPhone. Then, someone I know introduced me the term iPhoneography, since then I have gotten acquainted with it and sites like iPhoneography.com.
EC: What does iPhoneography mean to you? A: iPhoneography is a hobby for me, and a part of life. I need not to have a large camera all the time. Photographs may can be taken by intuition, If one wants to take them.
EC: Do you have any formal training regarding traditional photography? A: No, I have not trained in traditional photography because I am not in the that profession However, I often go to the galleries, exhibitions, etc.
EC: What about your hometown is so special that it makes you what to capture it through your iPhone? A: I am only photographing what’s in my presence. Of course, the number of sheets in which the photograph here in Japan is increased by the sheer number of special places.
EC: Who or what are your artistic influences? A: The people who influence me the most are other iPhoneographers.
EC: What has been some of the challenges of using the iPhone as a camera? A: A challenge I face is taking photographs of people walking in the streets of Japan. What I like to do is go up high building and photograph to get a vantage point while using my iPhone. Some of these spots are filled with other photographers with various cameras and are all bought together, sort of like a meet-up for everyone to take photographs of the walking traffic. Of course, I like to use my iPhone there. EC: What has been the most surprising or most predictable reaction from people to your iPhotographs? A: I really don’t mind reactions from others. I just take photographs when I’m interested in a subject. I am happy making photographs for myself. If it is transmitted, then that’s okay too. EC: What’s in your iPhone camera bag ? What app(s) do you currently use the most often? A: I have a lot of apps. The apps that I often use are CAMERAtan, CameraBag, ProHDR, PICtone, SkipBleach, Monochromia, PictureShow, LiveFX, CrossProcess, Hipstamatic, and SwankoLab.
EC: Do you mind telling us how you have created a photo from start to finish? A:Sure! STEP 1 This is the original, unedited JPEG straight off the camera. I use iPhone’s camera to take photos. At the entrance of the station, the photograph not edited is photograph. The outside is a dark because this photograph was taken at night, and the inside is bright photograph.
STEP 2 Next, I open the photo in the SkipBleach app.This tool has three sliders.Brightness and the contrast are done in the slide and it improves.
STEP 3 Next, I do it interesting in CAMERAtan because I became the overall like white. The photograph of STEP1 and the photograph of STEP2 are used and adjusted to one with the multiple exposure of CAMERAtan. And, I make it to a little old photograph by using the effect of ToyStorm2 of CAMEWRAtan.
STEP 4 Next,A little person outside the station darkened because I used the effect of ToyStorm2 of CAMEWRAtan. Then, Pro HDR is used to return the person outside the station to former brightness. It ends by this.
EC: What other thoughts would you like to share? A: I would have never expected that I would be uploading pictures taken with my iPhone to sites like Flickr, Posterous, etc. Recently, I am printied some photographs taken with my iPhone on paper like the film camera. It is interesting to note that the prints actually looks a little different from the photograph on the monitor. I have been wanting host an exhibition but, to much regret, a cheap gallery is few and far between so I have not been able to show my work here in Japan.
Thank you Arch for participating in this feature here on iPhoneogenic, the iPhoneogenic Facebook Page, and on Twitter @iPhone0genic. I’m pleased and very honored to have you on my blog. For more on ARCHiPhone check out these links: Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archiphone/ Posterous: http://iphoneographyjp.posterous.com/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/iphoneographyjp Blogger: http://www.favlife.com/ (Japanese only) Other: http://www.eyeem.com/streams/show/user%3A148 All images shown here are copyrighted property of the artist, please contact ARCHiPhone for copyright privileges.