iPhoneography Summer Residential Workshop with Meri Walker at Idyllwild Arts, California, USA
This summer residential workshop at Idyllwilds Arts is your first and most important step into the magical world of smartphone photography and art. The main focus is to explore the full potential of using a mobile phone to capture high resolution digital images for making art. The briefs for this course have an emphasis on photography and art smartphone applications to initially capture the image and then to further process the image. With students learning to digitally manipulate images on their device, together with producing an imaginative response to themes and concepts. This is a hands-on course, with theory and projects throughout the week.
This course is running for a second year and previous students including Pat Brown – an artist with a much lauded reputation in photography, had this to say: “Meri Walker rocks, and can she ever teach mobile photography! Her enthusiasm for this new and evolving art form is powered by her tech-savvy knowledge of today’s tools, apps, and trends and is further enriched by her years of experience as a traditional photographic artist. As a teacher, she is well-prepared, organised, interesting, articulate, and innovative, as well as patient, understanding, encouraging, inspiring, and a mentor for her students. Ask anyone she is a leading light in the new world of mobile art.”
Image ©Pat Brown
Connie Rosenthal an established award winning traditional and mobile photographer/artist, expressed: “I have had the pleasure of taking two iPhone workshops with Meri Walker and enjoyed them both. In a weeklong workshop at Idyllwild last summer Meri covered apps that were new to me as well as other important aspects of mobile photography regarding storing, posting and sharing photos. I also took a daylong workshop in Los Angeles during which she covered workflows for preparing mobile images for large-size prints. Meri is extremely knowledgeable and a detail-oriented teacher. Each student receives individualised attention as Meri makes sure everyone understands all the information she covers as well as any questions each student may have.”
Image ©Connie Rosenthal
Feedback from Idyllwild Arts has demonstrated that on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being 100%), Meri Walker scores 10 for student satisfaction. Students have travelled far and wide to attend this course, from Michigan, Oregon, Texas, Nevada and of course within California (Los Angeles) itself.
Image below of Meri Walker with students at Idyllwild Arts 2015 iPhoneography workshop
Meri Walker herself explains: “When I’m trying to master something, using books or recorded content on my own is nowhere near as much fun – or as productive – as learning together in real-time with others. So, early in my transition from traditional photography and printmaking process to using mobile devices I decided to offer individual and small-group support to others wanting to systematically fill in their knowledge and skill gaps. We all want to express ourselves creatively with greater ease and confidence. And I just happen to be one of those people who gets almost the same enjoyment from helping others stretch creatively as I do making my own work”.
‘When the Bough Breaks’ ©Meri Walker
This iPhoneography course will help you to begin to define who you are as a smartphone photographer and/or artist. The aim of this workshop is to help further develop your practical and theoretical approach to mobile photography and art in order to cultivate an independent and creative working practice.
‘Aiming for the Stars she Landed on Clouds’ – ©Meri Walker
Meri Walker
Meri Walker aka iPhoneArtGirl, taught art photography and photojournalism while exhibiting and publishing for more than four decades. For the last six years, she has worked solely with mobile image-making technologies while teaching and coaching other artists seeking quality results using mobile tools. Her work is featured weekly on the top mobile photography websites. In 2015, Meri juried two international mobile photography exhibitions, taught Idyllwild Art’s first mobile art workshop and presented at the Palo Alto MDAC Summit and the Creative Photo Academy in LA.
www.flickr.com/photos/iphoneartgirl
https://instagram.com/iphoneartgirl
To enquire or book a place please go here
‘I wish they all could be California Girls’ ©Meri Walker
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
One Comment
Meri Walker
Thank you so much, Joanne! I look forward to this time “up on the mountain,” as the old-time Idyllwilders say.
The campus is such a beautiful place to get away, concentrate on art, and make new artist friends from around the globe.