Mobile Photography – Popular App Distressed FX Gets Major Update and The Story Behind It
I am so proud of mobile artist Cheryl Tarrant, Distressed FX is her original idea, an iOS photo editing app that adds texture and atmosphere to pictures, giving them a dream-like quality. Popular on Instagram, with over 90,000 tagged photos, users have found it simple to turn any photo into a work of art.
With well over a million users, it has reached #1 in the App Store charts in 24 countries, and the #1 Photo and Video app in in 43 countries
Tarrant, who lives in the countryside in Tennessee, USA along with her many pets (including peacocks and chickens!), is a texture artist who has made a living selling her painterly textures to fellow digital artists. This exploded once she decided to create an app, enabling many more people to create art using only their mobile phone.
A casual online conversation with a friend resulted in a simple-to-use app that people of all ages and genders love to use. Developer Steve Liddell, who lives in the UK, said, “I wanted to keep the app true to Cheryl’s artistic vision. It really is her work shining through rather than the technology – and that’s what makes it unique in the App Store.”
Neither Tarrant nor Liddell expected Distressed FX to be as popular as it is and have a good working relationship despite never meeting, only corresponding online.
“My business was born out of slight desperation. I moved from the West Coast to the hills of Tennessee. Making such a move was a huge risk for me personally. I had previous graphic design experience and the move into textures was quite simple and felt natural, and going on to create a business selling those textures simply followed”, explains Tarrant. Cubicle jobs meant a certain little death for me. I have a hard time with monotony and being strapped down to a desk. Through fine art and, eventually, the app, I was able to have purpose with a sense of freedom. The creation of the Distressed FX app turned out to be the universe handing me a chance to maintain my autonomy, while having a sense of purpose and making a living.
There is freedom and creativity in the app. You can be sitting in a boring doctor’s office and, within seconds, make art: creating painterly images from ordinary photos. I like the idea of leaving our creative footprints in the world, and with the app, it’s possible for those of us who don’t consider ourselves to be creative, to feel and be creative, she said.
The website distressedfx.com has many more examples of photos produced by users, including a gallery at www.distressedfx.com/usergallery which is regularly updated, and features images that use the hashtag #distressedfx on Instagram.
The much anticipated update V2.0 will be launched March 24, 2017, please go here.
Demonstration Video (without sound)
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Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
One Comment
Kerry Mitchell
Wow!! Some much needed changes for a great app and some surprises for us!! A great app made even better!! Thanks for the heads up!