New Column ‘A Picture of Health’ Added to TheAppWhisperer.com Today
We are delighted to announce today a brand new column to TheAppWhisperer entitled ‘A Picture of Health’. Many of us have untold health issues and photography and art go a long way to enable us to feel included in parts of the world to which some of us feel excluded. For those affected, the website Rolling Paper has some useful articles on chronic health issues, symptoms and treatment options, and pain management too.
I was inspired to create this section by iconic photographer, who has since died, Jo Spence. She was a British working class photographer who got into photography following a relative conventional route. She was employed as a secretary at a photographer’s gallery and later decided to pick up a camera herself. She later opened her own studio and began taking portraits, passport photos, ‘empty images that paid the rent‘ she said. In 1982 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and began to explore the politics of disease through her work. One portrait shows her topless, staring at the camera with a bandage under her left breast and the words ‘Property of Jo Spence?’ scribbled in black pen above the nipple. She took the photograph with her into hospital as ‘a pre-operative talisman to remind myself that I had some rights over my own body.’
In the first post of this new column I have attached a photograph of myself, injecting essential medicinal drugs through my abdominal wall, a regular occurrence. It’s a pun on pop art, with the background of the rest of my body fading in the background. Ravaged with scars of previous major liver surgery and other major surgeries clearly visible upon my abdomen, it’s not a ‘pretty picture but it’s real‘. There’s a sense of intimate autobiographical photography here and it is part of a series of work. I would love to view a series of mobile photographers work within this column too. Ideally with around 5 to 7 images, of autobiographical imagery within the pun of ‘A Picture of Health’. Please have a think about how you will present this work, will you include captions? Where will they be placed in relation to the presentation?
I have also included an interview with Jo Spence for you to understand what an inspiration she was.
We have a Facebook group dedicated to ‘A Picture of Health’ and like our other Facebook groups, this will provide a platform for discussion on the techniques, aesthetics and goals that all mobile photographers bring to this art form. Please join this group.
TheAppWhisperer is growing at a phenomenal rate and trying to include as much unique content and variety from the mobile photography and art wold as our readers can possibly digest, you really don’t need to go anywhere else!
Please read
TheAppWhisperer has always had a dual mission: to promote the most talented mobile artists of the day and to support ambitious, inquisitive viewers the world over. As the years passTheAppWhisperer has gained readers and viewers and found new venues for that exchange.
All this work thrives with the support of our community.
Please consider making a donation to TheAppWhisperer as this New Year commences because your support helps protect our independence and it means we can keep delivering the promotion of mobile artists that’s open for everyone around the world. Every contribution, however big or small, is so valuable for our future.
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)
