A Day In The Life of The Talented Professional Photographer and iPhone user, Jordi V. Pou

Welcome to our very exciting new column on theappwhisperer.com. This section entitled ‘A day in the life of …’ is where we’ll be taking a look at some hugely influential and interesting individuals in the mobile photography world. People that we think you will love to learn more about.

This is our nineteenth installment of the series; you can read the others here, if you have missed any so far. Today we are featuring Jordi V. Pou, a professional photographer from Catalonia, Spain who counts his Apple iPhone as just one of the many cameras he uses depending on the project.

Pou, aged 43, started as a photographer working for newspapers and magazines almost 20 years ago, combining photojournalism with fine-art black and white laboratory printing. Around 10 years ago, Pou establish a successful commercial photography studio in Lleida, Catalonia which remains open to this day.

The studio offers professional photography ranging from fine-art thru to weddings, and yet Pou sets aside time for personal creative projects. Many of the projects have been exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions and sold to private collectors and institutions alike.

As early as October 2009, Pou started to include the iPhone for some of his personal work, most notable is the somewhat eerie body of work entitled, Kokovoko (Kokovoko.info) which has been included in many exhibitions worldwide, including a solo showing in Pou’s home town, in Lleida.

The Kovoko Project has now more than 1000 images, a result of uploading new images daily since October 15th 2009, which is 932 days today (to the date published). You can view his website at www.jordivpou.info with info about most of his projects and a news section with updated information. 

Check out the full interview below…

We have included exif data, in as much as the app or apps that were used to create the final image. As many of the images were cross processed we have listed the apps in the sequential order they were used in the editing process, we have also provided links for each app to the iTunes App Store, just incase you’re inspired enough to try them out for yourself as well as accessories used.

You can find all the links at the end of this article.

(If you would like to be interviewed for our new ‘A day in the life of …’ section, just send an email to [email protected], and we’ll get it set up.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Anybody Seen My Cadillac? (791)’ – Apps Used – King Camera, Filterstorm

JC – Let’s start at the beginning of the day, how does your day start?

JVP – Usually woken up by my little daughter, which is always the first to decide night is over. Then I take my older son to school and it’s just time to open my professional photographer studio near home.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Another Boy in the Bubble (510)’ – Apps Used – Camera+, TiltShiftGen

JC – Do you like to head out and take photographs early on?

JVP – It really depends on my work schedule. If I have to I can just do it as early as necessary. Talking about iPhone it’s just always ready.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Baby (1016)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Filterstorm, Blender

JC – How did the transition from traditional photographer to iPhoneographer develop? (pardon the pun)

JVP – I really don’t know if I did that. If you ask me if I’m a traditional photographer or an iPhone photographer, I will surely answer ‘I prefer to get the best of both’. I’m a photographer; I use all kind of cameras depending on the project or work I’m doing, including iPhone of course.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Blind (1060)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Filterstorm

JC – Do you like to download new iPhone photography apps regularly?

JVP – As a photographer, I love anything related with new equipment. That’s always been that way in photography. Now apps are [a] part of that equipment. I really like to test new apps often, but I also have to admit very few remain in my iPhone.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Deepen (872)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Filterstorm

JC – How often do you update your existing apps?

JVP – Daily. Everyday I use to backup my iPhone with iTunes and automatically search for app updates.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Empty Chair – Tribute to Nacho Cordova (792)’ – Apps Used – KingCamera, Filterstorm

JC – Where’s your favorite place in the world for a shoot?

JVP – As near as my home as possible. Even inside it so often. As magnum photog Patrick Zachmann said:  "You have to photograph your own history. Everything else is tourism.” As I’m not a tourist I love to work near my friends, people, places, streets, etc..

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Feeling The Center Of The World (873)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Filterstorm

JC – Do you also use iPhone photography tool apps, such as The Photographer’s Ephemeris?

JVP – Yes. I use that one a lot to plan long shooting days in different locations to plan hours to be in each place depending on the sun. Another one I use often is iHandy Level, so simple, but great to level studio lights on location, or even the camera itself.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Feel The Wind Blow (899)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Filterstorm

JC – What are your favorite, at the moment, iPhoneography apps?

JVP – Mainly two. As a camera replacement ProCamera has finally won the battle, fast and easy to use. And for post processing only one: Filterstorm, it allows me to work as I used to do in my old black and white manual laboratory. I never use pre-made filters, I work each image individually:

Very little more apart from those ones.  Sometimes I use color filters for B&W conversion in Simply B&W or Snapseed. And, sometimes I use free Genius Scan app to correct perspective in architectural shoots:

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘LightTrap (988)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Filterstorm

JC – Where do you like to upload your photographs? Flickr, Instagram?

JVP – I have my own site, www.jordivpou.info, which includes info on ongoing projects and a news blog. One of my most known projects is kokovoko, which runs in a photoblog named kokovoko.info which is hosted by tumblr. I upload a new image there daily. That image is automatically uploaded to Flickr for storage purposes. Occasionally, I post to Instagram or eyeem.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Nightmare On Shadows Paradise (637)’ – Apps Used – Camera+, Filterstorm

JC – Do you take photographs with your iPhone everyday?

JVP – Yes. I can’t remember a single day without shooting some image. And I don’t mean I go specifically to shoot with it but I always have it in my pocket and I use it many times a day.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Somewhere (1052)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Simply B&W, Filterstorm

JC – What are your favorite subjects?

JVP – Nearby. From my town to my own street. My friends. My family and home. Anything close enough to be important for me. But that doesn’t mean I’m doing any kind of documentary photography, no it’s not. Or at least it’s not for the viewers but it’s for me.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Talk About Illusions (1031)’ – Apps Used – ProCamera, Filterstorm

JC – What are you top five tips for iPhoneography?

JVP – I would recommend anyone to search for a book about learning photography from about 25 years ago. Use it to learn photography and you’ll learn to use your iPhone camera. It’s not different. Compositions, point of view, subject, light, … it’s photography.

After that, try to learn what are the strengths and weaknesses of the camera on your iPhone. Learn to use it. How? Practice, practice and practice. The trial and error process always works.

And finally, don’t worry about what you’ve learnt. Just use it. Find a subject, a reason, an idea. Anything that helps; you’ll be your own hardest judge.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘The Eye Begins To See (789)’ – Apps Used – KingCamera, Filterstorm

JC – Do you edit images on your iPhone or do you prefer to do that on a desktop/laptop?

JVP – It depends on the project. The Kokovoko project is always edited on the iPhone. But the Perfect Nature project, exhibited in Odapark recently, was edited on my desktop computer. I’m not a purist, I just decide on the best option for what I need.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘The Fate Of The Butterfly (794)’ – Apps Used – KingCamera, Filterstorm

JC – Do you enjoy videography with your iPhone?

JVP – Very little. Just family videos.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘The Light Hole (771)’ – Apps Used – Camera+, Filterstorm

JC – Where do you see mobile photography heading in the future?

JVP- I see a lot of future to any kind of photography, including iPhone photography.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘The Shadows (451) – Apps Used – Camera+, TiltShiftGen

JC – What do you think is the most popular area of mobile photography?

JVP – It’s hard to say. It such a global movement. There are people from everywhere doing interesting work.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘The Sleeping King (662) – Apps Used – Camera+, Filterstorm

JC – Do you think it’s country specific, are some nations more clued up?

JVP – That’s a difficult question. How do you measure that? In my opinion, in Spain, we are doing things quite well. First exhibition ever in a contemporary art museum. Talks and exhibitions on photography festivals. Mobile photography exhibitions and touring exhibitions. Exhibitions in galleries with non iPhone photographers or even other kinds of artists. All of them always related with the art world "outside" iphoneography. That generated a lot of press and media attention which is just impressive. From Playboy to awarded national news programs or art magazines. Obviously, that’s only my opinion. Probably people in some other countries just don’t agree.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Time Breaks Us in Pieces (547)’ – Apps Used – Camera+, Filterstorm

JC – What do you hope for in the iPhone 5?

JVP – It’s always good to have a better camera. But I really wish camera apps are allowed to control more of the camera settings. I mean control of ISO settings or exposure.

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Unreal (946)’ – Apps Used – Slow Shutter Cam, Filterstorm

JC What do you think of Joanne and theappwhisperer.com?

JVP – As I said at the beginning, I’m mad about knowing anything new about iPhone photography, from apps to events or new photographers. So theappwhisperer.com is a site to follow. And don’t forget the daily app giveaway, it’s just a daily must see. 

Copyright Image – Jordi V. Pou – ‘Window (677)’ – Apps Used – Camera+, Filterstorm

Apps Used with links:

KingCamera
Camera+
ProCamera
iHandy Level
Filterstorm
Slow Shutter Cam
TiltShiftGen
Simply B&W
Image Blender
Snapseed