You’re a big fan of mobile photography. Why?
“It’s a very legitimate tool, no different to people using their medium or large format camera or even a standard 35mm – they’re all just tools. I’ve shot with DSLRs and different format cameras for a long time but what I love about mobile photography that you always have the phone with you. Secondly, because of the resolution you can now output to almost museum quality prints.”
Seriously?
“It’s the photographer who makes the medium and who determines the end result. It’s about looking at mobile photography less as the 3rd cousin to regular equipment but as the same thing. It just gives people a more immediate outlet to capture the world around them.”
What about capturing movement?
“The technology has arrived where you can use a mobile phone to shoot action sports very easily I think.”
But you can’t do everything with a phone?
“You know what you can’t do with a mobile phone? You can’t convince some people that’s it’s a legitimate way to take pictures. Sure, there are certain situations you want a real camera, be it low light, etc. No phone can replace larger format cameras or regular DSLR photography – it’s an added tool.”
Would you work with one professionally?
“If someone came to a shoot I was doing and only wanted to use a mobile phone and that was part of the idea, I’d fully embrace it. Really smart brands and artists understand the power of something that’s so invisible that it disarms. There’s a time and place for DLSRs, for medium format cameras, but there’s also plenty of room for mobile phones to be part of the conversation when shooting things professionally.”
Are there any advantages to shooting with a phone?
There’s something very democratic about mobile photography. Anyone with a camera phone can take a picture, and we’re getting to see the world through both a very artistic and layman’s end with people’s use of the smart phones. That’s one of the most amazing things about the technology right now. The fact that it's allowing everyone to express themselves and access photography.
Power to the people huh?
“A mobile phone is very disarming as it’s almost invisible. From a portraiture and street photography perspective, it’s getting to an interesting place where mobile photography is getting more honest and authentic in capturing the world.”
Really?
“There’s an intimacy when you look at [mobile-shot] portraiture and street photography that you probably only saw in the early stages of photographic history. If you go back to the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the old masters, people didn’t have tons of cameras at the time so they were unaware, and you could really capture a moment in its purest form. Mobile photography is in that same realm because it’s so unintimidating. People will always put on their camera face when a camera is in front of them.”
Are people in your world as receptive to mobile photography as you?
“I think they’re very open to it. Instagram has transformed people’s opinions on mobile photography completely. Back in 1800s people thought that photography wasn’t a real means of artistic expression and painting was. There’s going to become a point when these camera phones will be as powerful as some of the basic DSLRs. It’s just a matter of staying present and being open to change.”
Lastly, do you have any tips for taking better images?
“Shoot and shoot and shoot and …”
Find out more about Jayanta and his photography on Instagram.
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Jayanta Jenkins goes mobile
Jayanta Jenkins is the Creative Director of Advertising at Apple/Beats by Dre and a recent winner of the Mobile Photography Awards. He says it’s time we recognized that mobile photography is here to stay – and give it the respect it’s due.
© Jayanta Jenkins