Mobile Photography and Art – A Picture’s Worth with Mandolina Moon from the US
‘A Picture’s Worth‘… is where we ask mobile photographers that have created powerful mobile photography/art to explain the processes they took. This includes their initial thoughts as to what they wanted to create, why they wanted to create it, how they created it, including all apps used and what they wanted to convey. We also ask these incredible artists to explain their emotions and how the image projects those feelings. We have published a few A Picture’s Worth articles recently, if you have missed those – please go here.
In this ‘A Picture’s Worth’ today we asked Mandolina Moon to tell us more about this image ‘Supernatural Forest Devi’. Matthews has detailed her thoughts below, we think you’ll find this invaluable…
“Thank you Joanne Carter for inviting me to participate in A Picture’s Worth. With the exception of photographing my dog, Briar-Rose, whose image I’ll often shoot with a theme or a story in mind, with most of my mobile photography I usually allow my subconscious to guide me. I snap pictures of anything I should happen across, then later select one of those shots to play with and see what I can discover while experimenting with various apps. It is a relaxing process and I don’t usually keep track of what I am doing on a conscious level.
Recently, while on a walk, in my neighbourhood, I captured, on my iPhone 6, an image of intermingling palm fronds and pine branches.
A few days later I opened the image in iColorama for some editing play. Under Style, I used a little Flow and Lighten to enhance and offer a sparkle and energy to the needles and branches. Under Adjust I played with ToneLab, then I went into Form and chose Mirror, Preset 4 and adjusted set XMirror. The image became a mandala, to me, the center looking like a female nature spirt, with her branchy arms raised up and her woody fingers forming mudras about her head. At this point, in my creative process, intention set in and I decided to refine what accident created. The image was still abstract, so I subtly layered in a female face, hopefully to allow others to see what I imagine. I saved the image and opened it in Repix, where I added a spattering of stars to represent the cosmos and a few bokeh representing spirit energy orbs. As the image came into being I saw the essence of the mandala as a deity of the woods, a supernatural Forest Devi”.
‘Supernatural Forest Devi’©Mandolina Moon
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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]
