TheAppWhisperer

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 2 February 2020

2020-02-02 by Joanne Carter

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties“, writes Erich Fromm, one of the most prescient thinkers of the 20th century. Love and creativity play a huge part of my life and it is physical. Love of art, the art of loving, irrational, intellectual, obsessive, insightful. Professor Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at the University College London, proved in a series of pioneering brain-mapping experiments that viewing art triggers a surge of dopamine, the feel-good chemicial, into the orbito-frontal cortex of the brain, resulting in feelings of intense pleasure, the same part of the brain that is excited, when we fall for someone, romantically. For all of us associated with mobile photography and art, we already know this, mobile art is our fix just like illicit drug taking, we feel immediate stimulation and like a drug, our reward centres crave for more. I also believe it is not just the viewers but also the creators of mobile art, that reach for that high too. Love, like creatvity, requires courage, to let ourselves go, as Fromm described above. It’s fierce trust, it demands you put forth your work, without knowing an outcome because fierce trust knows that the outcome does not matter, it cannot matter. Keep sharing your work, each one of you reading this was born to create. Ask yourself, how fierce is your trust in that love? Keep creating, keep viewing, it’s our labour of love.

I hope you all love this weeks mobile photography and art showcase as much as I do. Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week. If you would like your work to be considered for entry in to our weekly Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group, please submit it to our dedicated group, here. You can also submit images to our Instagram tag for this section #theappwhisperer.

Many congratulations to the following featured artists this week including:

Clint Cline, Jerry Clack, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Susan Blase, Hanni K, Lorenka Campos, Fleur Schim, Oola Cristina, Jayita Mallik, @imagomimago – Mimi Svanberg, @do.brze, Susan Latty, @honor_life – Irene Oleksiuk, @marymodale – Dale Botha, Beate Goralczyk, Dina Alfasi, Thelma Penteado, @jules4921 – Rita Colantonio, Janis Brandenburg, @winter__lines, @rain.is.poetry – Paul Suciu, @miandreai – Marius Andrei, Rosalie Heller, @rodrigobw – Rodrigo Vieira, @luison – Lrh, @jawdoc2, Alexis Rotella, @cardinphotography, Filiz Ak, thefringeproject, Jun Yamaguchi, Jane Schultz, Laila, Gianluca Ricoveri.

Music this week is ‘Breathe’ by Fleurie

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 26 January 2020

2020-01-26 by Joanne Carter

“Genuinely, I couldn’t give a damn about wrinkles, or middle age or putting on weight or my first grey hairs or reading specs – these are reasons to celebrate”, said Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor in her new moving memoir entitled ‘Dear Life’. These are very similar words that I heard from our dear friend and artist Carolyn Hall Young, who stayed with all of us until her passing. Books by doctors have become extremely popular over the past few years, they bring the reader closer to worlds they may have indeed been a part of but on the other side of the fence. My eldest son Jake, when he wishes to buy me a present and he’s the sweetest, knows that a good Dr book will keep me willingly distracted and rested until I’ve devoured it in its entirety, which doesn’t take long. Although, I do find myself, still annoyingly, being frustrated about wrinkles, middle age, reading specs and in my case weight loss, there’s a depth to my annoyance which more than covers my gratitude to still actually being here, with you all. In the UK we have a belief that we call and provide ‘cradle to grave care’ sadly due to NHS underfunding, this has become a fallacy. And I could give you all sorts of depressing statics about it but really, we don’t actually need to know. What we do here and now, with every immensely precious moment that we have together, is what really matters. What you all do best is to create the most stunning mobile photography and art, the greatest actually and with each creation an artist makes within our community, each one I view, I silently call a MasterPeace. In light of this, I have created a new style of interview entitled Mobile MasterPeace and intend to publish those in the coming weeks, for now though, bask with us in this weeks absolute glory of a showcase of Mobile MasterPeace.

Many congratulations to the following featured artists this week including:

@wemarriage_goddess, @marshadraws, @ja_graham, @cardinphotography, @before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Diane Neubauer, Paul Suicu, Janis Brandenburg, Dina Alfai, Eliza Badoiu, Nico Brons, Christine Mignon, @sodium_light22 – Jenny Pieters, Laila Bakker, @klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Mimi Svanberg, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, Rita Colantonio, Juta Jazz, Jennifer Bracewell, Hanni K, Jeremy Cassell, Lorenka Campos, P.A. Hamel, Clint Cline, Debara Splendorio, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Oola Cristina, Gianluca Ricoveri, Milly M, Deborah McMillion, Jill Lian, Manfred Majer.

Mobile Photography / Art New Year Resolutions 2020 From Artists Throughout The World

2020-01-152020-01-12 by Joanne Carter

We are delighted to publish our New Year Resolutions for 2020 from a selection of highly talented mobile photographers and artists throughout the world. As in previous years we have asked mobile photographers and artists for their New Year Resolutions with an accompanying image or video . Thank you to everyone who has contributed, they all make great reading, viewing and are inspiring, we are forever grateful to you all.

For TheAppWhisperer, 2020 is going to be a very exhilarating year and new decade. We intend to continue but to an even greater extent promote mobile photography and art, this includes all the current mobile photographers and talented artists already known within our community as well as discovering new talent and bringing them into the fold. During the Christmas break we have been working on brand new content which will be coming through within the next few weeks. We also intend to increase the number of artists within our online gallery and broaden the range of content that we offer to collectors throughout the world. 2020 is the start to a breathtaking decade and we can’t wait to see what you all create and share with us.

Many thanks to the following artists for their contributions: Susan Rennie, Armineh Hovanesian, Heather McAlister, Catherine Caddigan, Giulia Baita, Jane Schultz, Clarisse Debout, Allyson Marie, Diana Nicholette Jeon, Oola Cristina, Cecily Caceu, Susan Detroy, Cathrine Halsor, Meri Walker, Rob Pearson-Wright, Becky Menzies, Clint Cline, Ricardas Jarmalavicius, Michel Pretterklieber, Lindy Ginn, Carol Wiebe, Fleur Schim, Gianluca Ricoveri, Paul Suciu, Carlos Austin, Jill Lian, Frederic Deschenes, Sylvie Prevot, Lynette Sheppard, Anca Balaj, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Juta Jazz, Lanie Heller, Fatma Korkut, Gina Costa, Kerry Mitchell, Tomaso Belloni, Fiona Christian, Maurizio Zanetti, Deobrah McMillion, Peter Wilkin, Susan Latty, Judy Wahlberg, Marco Prado, Andrea Bigiarini, Sarah Bichachi, Filiz Ak, Phyllis Sherowitz Shenny, Shirley Drevich, Jean Hutter, Rino Rossi, Karen Axelrad, Rebecca Bruyn, Carlos Silva, Mehmet Omur, Lee Atwell, Mehmet Duyulmuş, Christina Chin.

(Editors note: If you have not contributed to this post and you would like to, please send me your New Year Resolution along with one image and I will gladly open up this post and include you – email joannetheappwhisperer@protonmail).

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 8 December 2019

2019-12-092019-12-08 by Joanne Carter

The life of an artist encompasses many avenues, one perhaps that I am frequently reminded of is the need for solitude, to create. French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre said ‘hell is other people‘. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I disagree with this sentiment, like many, it depends on the company. Orson Welles said ‘we’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone’, I disagree, I was fully present when my three children were born, I’ve never lived alone and nor would wish to and I’d be surprised if I die alone. I have experienced a death of a loved one, who died alone but many of the deaths I have experienced, have had company. There’s a difference between the feeling of solitude and the feeling of loneliness. The former is a luxury, one where we enjoy our own company, where we can create with all abandon. Loneliness can be an exhaustion. Professor John Cacioppo has been studying the effects and causes of loneliness for 21 years. He is the director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience. His book Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection examines the pathology and public health implications of the subject. In this very interesting book in answer to the following question he raised, “How many confidants do you have?”, he discovered “25% of Americans said they had no one at all”. This is a sad figure, but is one confidant enough to change brain chemistry if it is a quality connection? Professor Cacioppo explains “Enough is always a hard term, but certainly one is hugely better than zero. Two is probably better than one. The true answer to this question is that it depends on context. If, to take an extreme example, you are in a state of war, then one probably isn’t enough – you need a small army of people around you”. In the UK, in 2018, the first Minister of Loneliness, Tracey Crouch was appointed, we have an epidemic due not less to the breakdown of communities and connections. Cacioppo also disclosed that loneliness is contagious and leads to early death. It’s so important to de-stigmatise loneliness and we would love to see a mobile photography project devoted to it. At this time of year, with the holidays upon us, many people feel lonelier than ever. If you would like to create a project of loneliness, we will feature them, join us to help prevent social isolation. Please send a series of 12-15 images to this email address – joannetheappwhisperer@protonmail.com and please include narration.

I hope you all love this weeks mobile photography and art showcases much as I do. Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week. If you would like your work to be considered for entry in to our weekly Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group, please submit it to our dedicated group, here. You can also submit images to our Instagram tag for this section #theappwhisperer.

Deborah McMillion, Juta Jazz, Tomaso Belloni, Hanni K, Clint Cline, jim yoksimovich, Gianluca Ricoveri, Oola Cristina, Jerry Clack, Susan Rennie, p.a. hamel, Rita Colantonio, Cintia Malhotra, Scott Simpson, Lorenka Campos, Karen Axelrad, qingxian guo, Jun Yamaguchi, Catherine Caddigan, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, G R Fotos, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Peter Wilkin, Sailisa Li, Mark Swanson, Cathrine Halsor, Laila, borisbschulz2009, Mikhail Grebenshchikov, marc gommans, Sebastian Burczyk, Manfred Major, TSOriginaux, Fleur Schim, Kathy Clay, Phil Harris, Judy Wahlberg, Lydia Cassatt, Jane Schultz, Heather McAlister, VeraJane Vickers, soul_engine, Mehmet Duyulmus, Susan Latty, mitrydate, Jean Hutter, @tankaqueen – Alexis Rotella, Diane Neubauer, @tatteredphotographs – Kim Clayton, Eliza Badoiu, Rejane Rubino, @stillcindyjane, nielsb, Joy Sussmann, ja_graham, Chehalis Hegner, @clau_clara, @klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, @alban_rita, em.visualartist – Eduardo Marques, @alice1280, Filiz Ak, Marian Rubin, Fernando Prats, bartonsup, Derrick O Boateng.

Music this week is CLANN with ‘I Hold You’

Mobile Photography & Art – We’re Thankful to all of You!

2019-11-282019-11-28 by Joanne Carter

Happy Thanksgiving! We’re reviving and in some cases refreshing our mobile photography and art thanksgiving post of last year because it’s as relevant today as it was then. Although we do not officially observe Thanksgiving here in the UK, for me personally, it gives me another excuse to send love and gratitude to our beautiful … Read more Mobile Photography & Art – We’re Thankful to all of You!

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 24 November 2019 –

2019-11-252019-11-24 by Joanne Carter

I live in a built up area, as you might imagine, but when I stopped off at a petrol station, in the dark and pouring rain, to fill my car up this week, I was silenced into hushed awe. I lined up a pump, got out and opened the filler cap, whilst the blond captivating man, not disimilar in looks to the iconic Kurt Cobain, in the oposite pump was reaching a crescendo as he squeezed his pump into the fill spout. As first it was an unnerving experience, all the punters filling up their cars were hushed, as if in a theatre, all polite, near silence, no one stopped him, no one spoke to him (this is England) but everyone smiled at him and he grinned and stared at me. He unleashed a crystal clear voice before shaking the drips off his pump and hanging it back with a sway in his hips and an ‘I don’t give a **** attitude. His anarchic spirit undercut the atmosphere and his voice did the heavy lifting with a thrilling sense of scope and ambition. I’ve never had such a memorable experience at a petrol station. As he drove away, I yearned to be resuscitated, silently shouting ‘where are you? Art is all around us none more so evident than in this weeks showcase, enjoy!

Oola Cristina, Laila, Peter Wilkin, Yasuo Furue, Alexey Amelyushkin, Clint Cline, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Susan Rennie, Jane Schultz, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Jun Yamaguchi, klimtt – Cecilia Sao Thiago, Vadim Demjianov, Shelly MacNeil Conway, Paul Toussaint, Peter Wilkin, Francesco Sambati, Rita Colantonio, Cintia Malhotra, borisbschulz2009, Lorenka Campos, Gianluca Ricoveri, Eliza Badoiu, _soulkitchen_ Valeria Cam…, @colourcooker – Barbara Banthau, @mitrydate, @chehalishegner- Chehalis Hegner, @schwitter.li – Liliana Schwitter, @imagomimago – Mimi Svanberg, @lindahollier – Linda Hollier, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, @patragraphy, Christine Mignon, @le_brab – Pascal, @filizakart – Filiz Ak, @jenburnett, @ijanrm, @comizi – Cozi Koji, @tatsmosc -Maria Moscoso, @alice1280 – Ann.

Music this week is another of my favourites, Mahalia with ‘Back up Plan’

Mobile Photography & Art Saturday Poetry – ‘Life’ by Emma Lowrey Williams with Clint Cline

2019-11-23 by Joanne Carter

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Life’ by Emma Lowrey Williams. She was born around 1934 and graduated from the Cherokee Female Seminary in 1856 and taught at Green Leaf School, a Cherokee Public School.

I have matched this image by @clixit2020 – Clint Cline ‘And whom do you really know’.

If you would like to be featured in our Saturday Poetry section, please ensure you include the hashtag #theappwhisperer to any images posted to Instagram. This will mean we will be able to consider it.

To view the others we have published in this section, go here.

Source poets.org

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 17 November 2019

2019-11-182019-11-17 by Joanne Carter

I was delighted this week to learn that 45 year old Ivorian artist, Joana Choumali has become the first African photographer to scoop the Prix Pictet prize, winning with a series of embroidered photographs responding to the trauma of terrorist attacks in Ivory Coast in 2016. The series is entitled ‘Ca va aller‘ – meaning – ‘it will be ok‘, a reference to stoical reaction to adversity that she said permeated Ivorian culture. Her images were printed onto canvas and then later embroidered with stitches directly onto the surface. Combining photographic imagery with fabric and therefore, creating ‘conceptual portraits‘. She created this work ‘as a need to process the pain‘. She said ‘each stitch was a way to recover, to lay down the emotions, the loneliness and mixed feelings I felt‘. Her work is stunning but what particularly interested me was the way it helped her to process her inner pain. I believe pain is the root to many artists’ work, whether that be pictorial, sculpture or the written word and I refuse to believe anyone who tells me, and they frequently do, that it has no place – it has every place. I am luckily enough to be invited to many exhibitions and shows around the world and earlier this year, I attended the opening of Tracey Emin’s brutal portraits of female pain exhibition ‘a fortnight of tears‘. I spoke with her and discussed her work. Her background repeats in much of her art and as she gets older, also the sleeplessness, exhaustion, whirling anxieties and the fear of running out of time contribute. The power of female art has become vital for women and not ‘just‘ artists but for all women. French writer and poet Andre Breton once described Frida Kahlo’s art as a ‘ribbon around a bomb‘, I say, standby for the blast…

Chhororo, klimtt – Cecilia Sao Thiago, Jun Yamaguchi, Sebastian Burczyk, Clint Cline, woltarise, borisbschulz2009, Catha Li, Catherine Caddigan, Deborah McMillion, Lorenka Campos, Sherrianne100, Hanni K, Southfield Photos, Laila, Rita Colantonio, I-C-Things – David Starling, Gianluca Ricoveri, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Rennie, p.a.hamel, Jane Schultz, Marguerite Khoury, Vadim Demjianov, psychephoto – Robin Cohen, kathyc2136, Eliza Badoiu, Anca Balaj, J A Graham, @filizakart – Filiz Ak, @schwitter.li, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, mitrydate, Rosalie Heller, Diane Neubauer, Judy Wahlberg.

Music this week ‘You mean the world to me’ – Freya Ridings

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 10 November 2019

2019-11-152019-11-10 by Joanne Carter

Many people write to me each week and I love it. Sometimes, I am asked for advice, sometimes I’m asked about me. This week a few times, it was mostly the latter. I was asked, ‘how do you keep coming up with ideas?’, ‘where do they generate from?‘ and then ‘how do you deal with a creative rut?‘. I think the latter was the hardest because the first two I answered with ‘I’m constantly gathering ideas, things that I see each day, people I meet, observations that I make, judgements (I hate to say), but they all encapsulate and become the images and ideas that I’ve been having for the past ten years and I amalgamate them’. To answer, ‘how do you deal with a creative rut?‘, was a lot tougher. I love writing but sometimes I get stuck, as I am with one project now, that has pained me for too many tortuous months. I don’t have a solid process, sometimes I surprise myself that anything gets written at all. But sometimes, I get an idea and find the angle I need and write the whole thing up in no time, wtf. When I get stuck, when I hit a creative rut, I have to take myself out of all of the usual things that I do. So, I’ll pick up a book for example, that might have absolutely nothing to do with creativity, if I can say that, because the fact that it’s been written is a sign of creativity isn’t it? – yes, I frequently argue with myself. Anyway, if you haven’t read Naomi Wolf’s book, Vagina, then you should, specifically the paragraph on the creative power of the orgasm, it really helped me to formulate my next project and reminded me of a quote within the main tome that I am currently re-reading, Sontag by Benjamin Moser, chapter 12, when Sontag has an affair with ‘Irene’ who was by all accounts totally luscious and Sontag was quoted as saying ‘she could make a rock come‘, how glorious! Writing can be a lonely occupation but sometimes ideas flow out of me like a goddam fountain climaxing. I would say, as I have often repeated, resilience is key, and remember when you were 20 and looking forward, never back? As you get older, when the going gets tough, people look back, why do that? I don’t do that. Life is still in front of you and it’s that that needs to be treasured. Keep going…

rain.is.poetry – Paul Suciu, _soulkitchen_ – Valaria Cammari, @iameirkabrown – Erika Brown, @eslieber – Erik Lieber, @ilemusi – Ile Mont, Nichole Christophe, Jana Curcio, @chalktiger, Eliza Badoiu, @jorgeolaveriveros, @ja_graham, @accidental_artist, Rosalie Heller, @thelma.penteado, @josephineduson, @marshadraws – Marsha Estes, @iphotami – Karen Axelrad, pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, @luison_street – Lrh A, @patragraphy, @mitrydate, @velvet_iris_photography, Peter Wilkin, @schwitter.li, Laila, Jun Yamaguchi, woltarise, Yasuo Furue, Clint Cline, Hanni K, Rita Colantonio, Linda Hollier, Gianluca Ricoveri, Susan Rennie, Sheldon Serkin, Judy Wahlberg, Andy Alexandre, @nini_nini-, Allyson Marie, @before.1st.light – Jane Schultz,

Music this week is Nina Simone – Feeling Good (Avicii Remix)

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 27 October 2019

2019-10-272019-10-27 by Joanne Carter

I spend everyday thinking creatively, as indeed all our readers do and I would go so far as to say, everyone does in somepart. What does surprise me is when writers bandy around the phrase ‘creative industries‘. I can honestly say, hand on heart, I don’t know of any ‘uncreative industries‘. Creativity is the most powerful competitive advantage any business can possess. New ideas, fresh thinking are the fizz companies to make their business’s pop. There’s this overriding notion that creative artists are cut from a different cloth, this needs to be debunked. Young children overspill with ideas, they cannot hold back. Earlier this week, I was walking one of my dogs on a green, close to a primary school and a little bright red haired girl, of around 6 years old came bounding over to my dog Rosemary (named after the herb) and I. This little girl asked me five questions in the space of around 20 seconds about Rosemary, or so it seemed, she was thoroughly invigorating. Her mum appeared and rushed her away to a playdate. As we walked away, I began thinking how important it is to empower people to use their imagination. Schools are so focused on children passing exams, that when these children join the workplace they’ve been conditioned to conform and have in many cases lost the ability to ‘think outside the box‘. Remember, that old Apple ad that said ‘here’s to the crazy ones!‘ – that’s us, rule breakers, creative thinkers and thus this should lead to creative leaders. You can only get to that place, if you stay creatively minded. Boardrooms need to affect the changes and become more innovative, it can be done. Twenty years or so ago now, I managed to pull off a face to face meeting with a major photographic retailer here in the UK. It was a meeting with their Chairman and all of their board in their headquarters. I remember saying to them, as they announced yet another new shop opening, ‘customers will start to make purchases online in the future, you need to create an online presence and once you’ve done that, you need to offer cheaper prices for your products online with free shipping‘. Every person around the table laughed in my face, and it’s not the first time, I could give you many examples of similar meetings. I wanted to run their online presence but they could see no need to have one. Earlier this week I read this same company, not for the first but for the second time, since that meeting, has plunged into receivership and announced job losses into their thousands. I thought, perhaps this is dawn of a new epoch: the creative age for mankind. It’s needed urgently, more now than ever.

Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week. If you would like your work to be considered for entry in to our weekly Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group, please submit it to our dedicated group, here. You can also submit images to our Instagram tag for this section #theappwhisperer.

Anca Balaj, Eliza Badoiu, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, @tatteredphotographs – Kim, @cawestruck – Carol Wiebe, @bee_dobs – Barbara Braman, @da_ny550, Shelley Benjamin – @sbenja823, Marianne Rieter, Christine Mignon, @vadqcooper – Vicki Cooper, @mitrydate, @rosaliehellerphotography – Rosalie Heller, klimtt – M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Nicole Christophe, Filiz Ak, Lorenka Campos, @rain.is.poetry – Paul Sucicu, @marymodale – Dale, @pause.and.breathe – Susan Latty, Sukru Mehmet Omur, @niels_b – Niels Brunelli, @tankaqueen – Alexis Rotella, @cresting_wave – Paul Yan, @remintrusions – Damian De Souza, @ja_graham, Kathy Clay – @kathyc2136, @karenklinedinst – Karen Klinedinst, Gianluca Ricoveri, Vadim Demjianov, Deborah McMillion, Joyce Harkin @harkinjoyce, Maarten Oortwijn, Susan Detroy, Susan Rennie, Hanni K, Jill Lian @jilllian2, Catherine Caddigan, Tonytang Tang, p.a.hamel, Frank Van Dongen, Clint Cline, Linda Hollier, Steve, Karen Axelrad, Yasuo Furue, Paul Yan, I Rome, Rita Colantonio, borisbschulz2009, Rob Pearson-Wright, Laila, Jun Yamaguchi, Judy Wahlberg, Karen Axelrad, Damian De Souza, Carol Wiebe, Vicki Cooper, Christine Mignon, p.a.hamel, Jun Yamaguchi, Barbara Braman, Filz Ak, Frank Van Dougan, borisbschulz2009, I Rome, Vadim Demjianov, Gianluca Ricoveri, Maarten Oortwijn.

Music this week, another English singer/songwriter who I adore – Jess Glynn with ‘Take me Home’