03.27.2012 - Hartford, CT - Foy Ware, who wanted to "enjoy the sunshine and meditate" smokes a cigar in a downtown doorway (tech note: iPhone iOS camera).
For the Hartford Courant, a threshold was crossed almost two months ago when a photograph I made using a company-issued iPhone was published in the newspaper’s CTNow section. Since then, I have used the phone on a number of Courant assignments including a portrait of Parker Posey and for a story on gong meditation.
Most of these iPhone-produced photographs were created using the Hipstamatic app and some were published in the paper, at courant.com or here at Eye Contact.
04.17.2012 - New Haven, Ct - Four images of Parker Posey (tech note: iPhone Hipstamatic camera app set to John S lens and Ina’s 1969 film).
With the start of this century, digital cameras have emerged as photojournalism’s dominant tool. But unlike the last century — when decades were defined by a single prevailing camera model — there is no longer a consensus on what is standard equipment. Digital cameras are ubiquitous and global lines of distribution are available to anyone with access to the Internet.
This does not mean that anyone with a cellphone is a photojournalist any more than it means that anyone with Microsoft Word is a reporter. But it does mean that more news photographs can come from a greater number of people and from a greater number of locations.
With this increase in the quantity of images that can be distributed and seen as news photographs, photojournalists bear an important responsibility to define clearly and discuss the principles and ethics of how we record and present our photographs.
Left: 05.10.2012 - Bolton, CT - Tree removal on Route 44. Right: 05.02.2012 - West Haven, CT - University of New Haven Fire Lab (tech note: iPhone Hipstamatic camera app set to John S lens and Blanko film).
When using my Courant-issued Nikon DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras, I shoot raw files. I do so not because I want a zillion degrees of latitude and malleability; rather, I set my cameras to shoot raw files for the credibility of the images.
Raw files are made only when a shutter release button is depressed. There is no way to make a Nikon raw file using Photoshop. If ever there is a question of what my Nikons recorded at the time I decided to make an image, a raw file shows exactly what the camera saw when its shutter was open. (iPhones, for now, are not built to create raw files, but I welcome the day when they can).
This moment of creation, either when film is exposed or when a camera’s hardware and software convert light into a digital file, is held in high regard by photojournalists. John Long, chairman of the Ethics and Standards Committee for the National Press Photographers Association, and a former Courant staff photographer, has described this moment as “sacrosanct.”
April 26, 2012 - East Hartford, CT - Amanda Hauserman meditates during a gong concert (tech note: iPhone iOS camera).
As photojournalists, every photograph we make is the result of decisions regarding lens choice, camera choice, angle of view, camera subject distance, etc. In addition to these tools of the trade, Courant photographers have a long-standing ethic of documenting our subjects with a minimal amount of intervention – beyond our presence — into the environments of our subjects.
Portraits allow for some direction from the photographer, but even then the tradition of not disturbing or intervening is strong. This practice has become instinctual, and I employ it at all times — even when photographing my family. It is no exaggeration to say that I have never asked a member of my family to stop or repeat what they are doing so I can make a so-called “better” photograph. It is not the responsibility of our subjects to make a compelling photograph; it is ours.
So when I started using an iPhone on assignments, it was a choice I made with strong consideration of these principles. What amazed me about the iPhone’s camera was how little impact it had on a scene. These devices are small and silent, their image quality in most cases is very high, and their non-intrusive nature has allowed me to work in environments where larger and louder cameras would have destroyed the integrity of a scene.
05.04.2012 - Windsor, CT - Older Americans Breakfast attendee John Drost (tech note: iPhone Hipstamatic camera app set to John S lens and Blanko film).
The rise of apps like Instagram with their post-capture filter packs and selective focusing tools are intriguing and I have experimented with them. Over time, I have steered away from them because the extent to which they alter a scene after it has been captured is more than I am comfortable with.
That said, I am not as reluctant to use specific pre-sets that come with an app like Hipstamatic when these aesthetic devices are implemented at the time of capture. The result is that I can use the Hipstamatic app to achieve consistent, predictable photographs.
04.27.2012 - Portland, CT - Brothers John Cyrulik, 93, (L) and Edward Cyrulik, 88 (tech note: iPhone Hipstamatic camera app set to John S lens and Ina's 1969 film).
I recently had an assignment to photograph brothers John and Edward Cyrulik. These World War II veterans were separated during their service in the war but found each other on the South Pacific’s Bougainville Island. Their emotional reunion in 1943, and their plans this year to visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., was reported by free-lance writer Katherine Ogden for The Courant.
While making their photograph with my DSLR cameras I also made photographs using the iPhone and Hipstamatic app. The iPhone camera produced an image with greater depth of field than the DSLR could render. This resulted in communicating a stronger relationship between the foreground images that the brothers held of themselves and the photographs on the wall behind them. It was a clearer and more compelling presentation of who the brothers were, who they are now, and their generational legacy.
04.27.2012 - Portland, CT - Brothers John Cyrulik Sr., 93, (L) and Edward Cyrulik, 88 (tech note: Nikon D300s, 24mm lens, f2.8, 1/125th shutter, iso 1000).
There was reluctance on the part of some in The Courant’s newsroom, and photography department, to use this image in print because software created the photograph’s border and isolated regions of blur. For that reason, it was determined that the photograph could be published but only with a credit line indicating it was a “Hipstamatic photo-illustration.” Because the image and its apparent “flaws” in quality were produced at the moment of capture, I don’t agree that the image is an illustration. That term has been reserved traditionally for photographs rendered unrecognizable from the image created at the moment of capture.
In 2011, the Pictures of the Year International competition awarded Damon Winters of The New York Times third-place for a set of photographs he made, using an iPhone and the Hipstamatic app, of U.S. soldiers in northern Afghanistan. In response to the award, photojournalist Chip Litherland wrote: “What we knew as photojournalism at its purest form is over and POYI just killed it. Well, they didn’t kill it so much as just dig another knife deeper into the back of its decaying corpse.”
The Poynter Institute hosted a web-chat about the photographs and The New York Times Lens blog also discussed the matter at length.
Damon Winters wrote, and I feel the same way, that he did not want “to be seen as an advocate” for “camera phones and apps in photojournalism” because he did not want “to be seen as an advocate for their use and to avoid any appearance of endorsing any particular product or technique.”
So yes, the irony is not lost on me that this subject has resulted in my longest Eye Contact post but discussions of process are vital to maturing further the voice of a craft that is ever more challenged but whose potential is growing ever greater.
05.09.2012 - Hartford, CT - Rubber stamps in the Capitol's House chambers photographed in the final hours of the 2012 legislative session (tech note: iPhone Hipstamatic camera app set to John S lens and Blanko film).
Of course your DSLR could render a photographs with greater depth of field than you imply. There seems plenty of light to have stopped down your aperture. Maybe you just didn’t go to the assignment as prepared as a photojournalist should be. What ever the reason, it is not acceptable to use an app that creates a mood. It is not your interpretation of the story I’m interested in. For the record, these app looks are so dated. If you want to do art photography, I suggest you find your own style.
Mark,
I really think the Hipstamatic photo gives a much more intersting look to the brothers–much more eye-catching. I’ve been playing around with Hipstamatic a bit. Are you willing to share what Hipstamatic settings you used when this was taken (ie. film, lens, flash on or off)? Thanks!
Dave
Dave, thank you for writing. The photograph of the Cyruliks was made with Hipstamatic’s setting called “The Original.” So John S lens with Ina’s 1969 film. No flash.
Thanks!! :)
It is really hard to believe that a Nikon DSLR could not get that depth of field. Did you try aperature preferred and set the film speed high enough to keep the shutter up so movement didn’t blur the image? Some Nikons even have a +/- 5 fstop override to help on the exposure. I agree with you that the focus of service photos with the men and the family photos on the wall is a more powerful image than just the men in focus but this should have been doable with the Nikon and would have resulted in a better quality picture.
I think we should have the ISO , lens used, the shutter speed and f/stop settings published under every photo. That way we can tell the photographer how he could have made the photo better. This is possible with digital cameras.
I am kidding of course. I think there should be one criteria. Does the photograph convey the story being told?
Photography Apps are just representations of Medium Format cameras and the various films that used to be available to all. Anyone familiar with photography for more than ten years would know this. And I doubt 20 years ago if a photograph was shot with a grainy film that had high saturated colors anyone would have commented.
Photographers love these apps because it reminds them of film and its a reaction to the generic perfecttion that is availbale to all with Digital Photography.
Mr. Mirko,
I agree that we live in an exciting time. Ten years ago, as a highschooler, I wouldn’t shoot anything other than a 35mm Nikon SLR. But today we have more options, including the cameras in our phones. I personally don’t currently use a smartphone, or any phone with a decent camera built into it, but that will eventually change.
As a photojournalist, the first thing I do when the Courant comes in the morning is check out the photos on the front page of each section, and then I look to see who the photographer was (Was it someone I’ve ever crossed paths with? Was it someone I haven’t had the privilege of meeting yet?). Sometimes the subject jumps out first. Other times, it’s a technical detail. The first thing I noticed about the photograph of the Cyruliks on the front page of today’s paper was that it had a vintage feel, and a square aspect ratio. And then I read that it was a “Hipstamatic photo illustration”, so I immediately wondered, “Was this taken using an iPhone?”
The Courant has a rich photographic history, and has always been one of those newspapers for which young photojournalists aspire to work. Personally, my feeling (and who am I to judge?) is that unless something drastically changes, America’s oldest continually published newspaper will always honor the decisive moment and the authenticity of the original moment. Labeled as a photo illustration, I do not see such experiments as this one as being a disservice to photojournalism. Rather, such images, used judiciously and sparingly, might serve to pique viewers’ interests.
Hopefully, we will never see the day when an image captured on conventional film is considered a photo illustration and unworthy for publication. I make an effort to shoot my personal projects on film as much as possible, because I enjoy the medium and its heritage. Sometimes, digital feels like an excursion that never ends. But it’s still nice to go home once in a while.
Keep up the great work.
-Al Valerio
What about the archival integrity of the photograph? 30-50-100 years down the road, how will others interpret a Hipstamatic app photo? Only as an image that a photographer did not ‘create’. I’ll stick to RAW for the sake of the future.
Search the Apple App Store for 645 Pro. This is a camera app that indeed shoots a raw photo on the iPhone by intercepting the image before the iPhone’s iOS compresses the image. Lits of other goodies too in the form of controls. I love it.