Motorola days
Cellphoney days in Castelnaudary, Köln, New York
By Jerome Yager yager
Category: Fine Art Photography
Tags: cellphone pictures, cellphone photography, jeff wall style, john gossage influence, motorola cellphone, new york, motorola, yager, castelnaudary, köln, cologne
Armed with what was considered during the 1980’s to be a shortlived gadget, a mobile telephone equipped with a photographic function (with a 1,3 megapixel lens), I have attempted to represent our era from the viewpoint of my daily life in 2008, lead simply by the hasard of the eye’s view. What was of most interest to me was the crucial " instant " of the French father of all street reality photographers, Henri-Cartier Bresson who had always attached the utmost importance to observation, only triggering the aperture if and when he felt the right moment was there, the decisive instant.
It seemed to me interesting to deviate the photographic option of the mobile telephone from its initial function as described by the commercial services of the telephone manufacturer, that is to say a portrait photography destined to be sent as an " MMS " from one mobile to another. The mobile photo, so-called, corresponds to certain codes and conditions which have developed from exchanges on internet. They reply to three new requirements : the reporting of events (often used by press and media), a hidden camera, a stolen photo (paparazzi now use mobile phones, a good example being the recent photo of Kate Moss surprised in a night club). In this work, I have wanted to re-examine the advantages of slow observation. The photos have been taken in France in Castelnaudary, in Germany in Cologne where I was born and in New York, the town closest to my heart.
Square 7x7 inches (18x18 cm) 98 pages
Published: May 26, 2008
