Mobile Artists on Their Artistry – Interview with Gerry Coe from Belfast, Northern Ireland
We are delighted to publish the fourteenth of our new styled interview entitled ‘Mobile Artists on Their Artistry’. Within this interview, we ask highly successful mobile artists twenty questions about their backgrounds, their work, social media, how Covid-19 has influenced their creative life and so much more…
Today, we are proud to feature award winning artist Gerry Coe. Coe has been rewarded for his skills to mobile photography and has twice received the Peter Grugeon Fellowship of the Year Award at the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) awards. This is one of the most highly recognised of its kind.
To read our other interviews in this series with Jane Schultz, Susan Latty, Cindy Karp, Sukru Mehmet Omur, Deborah Kleven Morbeto, Patty Larson, Adrian McGarry, Catherine Caddigan, Rita Colantonio, Sarah Bichachi, Marco Prado, Mehmet Duyulmuş and Peter Wilkin please go here.
How would you introduce yourself to someone who doesn’t know your work?
Hi, I’m a professional photographer, I now only use my iPhone to take pictures.
What name do you use within social media and was this a conscious decision?
Coe-iPhoneArt, I suppose because it describes what I do. see question 8. Also my portrait business was Coe-Photographer
What kind of family did you grow up in?
Single child with a lot of friends and best parents around
Did your childhood influence your ideas about creativity?
Not that I can think of, I always liked to paint and draw but was never very good at it.
Did your parents support your creativity?
When I was in secondary school at the age of 12 I became interested in photography and just before my 16th Birthday I got my first job working as an assistant photographer, when I phoned my Dad to say I got offered the job should I take it, he asked what I wanted to do and they supported me every step of the way. I have never stopped working as a photographer.
When was the first time you knew you wanted to be an artist?
I have never called myself an artist, I am a photographer.
What is creativity to you?
Turning out an occasional nice image.
What did you do before (if appropriate) becoming an artist?
Was always a photographer in one form or another.
Where are you most creative?
Probably sitting watching TV and pushing lots of buttons on my phone on different apps to see what happens.
What inspires you?
Everything.
Who inspires you?
People I meet either physically or online.
Does your engagement on social media help you to plan your future projects?
Not really.
What does your average day look like?
Varies as I’m now retired from my portrait business so its a case of, breakfast, checking emails (not so many nowadays) meeting friends, visiting daughter and grandkids…OH and taking the occasional photograph.
Is it your intention to ask questions or make the viewer question what they see?
Neither, I just take pictures and if other people find something in them or just like the look of an image then that is fine by me.
Is there humour in your work?
Occasionally but not a deliberate attempt on my part.
How important is failure in your work process? Do you incorporate it into your creative process?
Lots of failures or better said “It has not reached the required standard yet” I work through lots of images before I’m reasonably happy and sometimes I need to go back a step or two or scrap it and start again. It’s all a learning curve.
How do you deal with criticism?
Can’t please all of the people all of the time, so shrug and move on.
Has the Covid-19 pandemic influenced your creative life?
Initially it just gave me more time to experiment with new apps etc and where I live it is 100 yards/meters from the sea and I could go out for a walk without really meeting people so I can’t say it has made a big difference to me.
Who dead or alive would you like to have dinner with?
My Mum and Dad.
What is the best piece of advice that you’ve heard and still repeat to others?
Can’t think of anything in Particular.
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Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photographer, photography journalist, editor and curator and the founder and editorial director of TheAppWhisperer.com, an independent international photography publication established in 2009.Her journalism, criticism and commentary have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, Vogue Italia, LensCulture, Popular Photography, Android Magazine, NikonPro, DPReview, Which Digital Camera and Which Camera. She has lectured internationally on photography and mobile art, served as a juror for international photography awards, and exhibited her own photographic work across the UK, Europe, South Korea and the United States.Alongside her editorial work, Joanne's photographic and postgraduate research explores death, grief, memory, representation and social inequality through contemporary photography, participatory practice and visual research methods, with the longer-term aim of developing this work through doctoral research.Through TheAppWhisperer, she continues to publish independent photography journalism spanning contemporary photographic practice, mobile imaging, photographic apps, computational photography and emerging imaging technologies.Joanne is available for editorial commissions, photography projects, judging, curatorial work, speaking engagements, consultancy and selected collaborations.
