What Apps Are We Using This Month? with Ilise Harris

I am currently making a documentary film about the trend of women growing out the dye and letting their silver hair show. I feel it is an important cultural shift. This is of note because I am shooting much of this myself on my iPhone 14 pro. I never would have embarked on this project without my experiences in the mobile photography movement.

At times I go for a “show me” walk to clear my head and see what presents, and oh, the flowers! A patch of tulips encouraged me to create a little formula.  I started with the beloved Hipstamatic App and did double exposures; one exposure was straight up, the other utilizing the wide angle option. I then ran them through Snapseed for a bit of clean up and amplification of certain aspects.  I  liked the results so much that I took a trip to the NY Botanical gardens to see the orchid show, and then used the same formula on a recent trip to Stockholm where I found a lemon tree at a museum still wrapped in protective white fabric.   Everything was processed on the phone.

Hipstamic and Snapseed are my most used apps.   I was a wizard with Leonardo, and was so crushed when that was discontinued that I had a hard time adjusting to SuperimposeX but I do use it when I’m wanting a deeper, layered composite. For little videos I like CapCut.  I haven’t been deeply involved in mobile work lately aside from the film project but was quite tickled when the tulip series was spotted by a small gallerist. We made small squares behind acrylic glass by Whitewall, so fingers crossed!