Mobile Photography & Art – ‘Intimate Interview’ with Irene Oleksiuk from Illinois, United States
We have decided to launch a new intimate style of interview into TheAppWhisperer – the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website. We feel it is important that our community feel close to each other, as it is this support that helps us to nurture one another, gain confidence and continue to grow.
This is our twentieth first interview, to read the others, please go here. Today, we are publishing this continually fascinating interview with Irene Oleksiuk from Illinois, United States.
All images ©Irene Oleksiuk
What was your childhood or earliest ambition?
I think I was about 7-8 years old and someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to be a farmer. Not sure where this ambition came from since I lived in the big city of Chicago and had never been to a farm or seen a field, but even as a child I loved our city garden and loved animals. Never became a farmer but to this day I love gardening and taking care of animals.
First Recognition
I’m a later bloomer. My first recognition was about 12 years ago when I won 1st place for my image at a local art show. Big girl camera not iPhone.
First Job
Summer job when I was 15. In my community there was a social services office that was looking for teens to help with whatever they needed done. I remember walking thru the neighbourhoods looking for cheap apartments for people who needed to rent.
Private or State school?
Private(Catholic) grade school and High school. College state school
University or Work?
Both. After high school I did not want to go on with school. I had no skills, like typing or secretarial but go a horrible job in the billing department of a large hospital. This was before computers, so very boring. Lasted roughly a year there and I changed my mind and applied to University.
Who was or is still is your mentor?
Two people come to mind.
Walt Anderson who was one of my teachers at the Morton Arboretum where I was taking nature photography classes. He is the one who helped me understand the mechanics of my camera and gave constructive critiques and encouraged me very much.
Knox Bronson was the 1st person to boast my confidence in my iPhone photography. Found a post from Pixels at an Exhibition asking for images for a upcoming gallery show in California. I got in! Thru the years that I have known Knox, he has encouraged me, gave good advice on what to do and not do. Still grateful for his help.
How physically fit are you?
I do walk, bike and go the weights class 2x a week, which is good but I also have bad joints and had knee replacement surgery recently.
Ambition or talent: What matters more to success?
I feel you need both, if one is missing its hard to succeed
How politically committed are you?
Not at all. Dislike politics and politicians.
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future” J.F.Kennedy
What would you like to own that you don’t currently possess?
Youth, but with my current knowledge
Getting a new iPhone every year and recently the iPad pro biggest one.
In what places are you happiest?
In what places are you happiest?
In a forest, with the trees.
What ambitions do you still have?
Still want to create, still want to explore the physical world(travel), still want and need to explore my inner world.
What drives you on?
Drives and hopes is what keeps all of us going. For me its the exploration, learning and creating.
What is the greatest achievement of your life so far?
Raising a kind and good soul Son, being married to same person for 45 years.
What do you find most irritating in other people?
People who are sheep. Who don’t think for themselves but go with whatever society, media tell them how to live, what to believe.
If your 20 year old self could see you now, what would she think?
She would be so proud of me! How much I have grown and flourished and changed.
What is the greatest challenge of our time?
How we are being governed and not just in my country but globally.
Do you believe in an afterlife?
Yes I do. Not the traditional way religions teach. All living things have an energy/soul that when the body dies needs to go to its destination.
If you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10, what would you score?
10. I’ve had a good and happy life, with special people whom I love and they love me. What else is there?
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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]
