Laila Archives - TheAppWhisperer

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 19 May 2019

19/05/201919/05/2019 by Joanne Carter

“Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.” ―E.M. Forster, The Machine Stops and the first book that I immediately reread thrice, when I was thirteen. It was the first book that interrupted my thought processes enough to relieve me of outside pressures. It was transient, like a mediation. Today, several new books have been released along an albeit more modern but similar vein. I am thinking of Frankisstein by Jeanette Winterson, author of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. As well as Ian McEwan’s ‘Machines Like Me’ new release, set in 1982. This counterfactual novel sees Argentinian end the war abruptly with the Falklands becoming Las Malvinas. McEwan introduces an £86k male robot designed by Alan Turing, who in this book, has not been hounded to death for his homosexuality but instead, lauded for his technological breakthroughs. Of course it’s speculative fiction but the complexity is as disturbing as it is intelligent.

During an interview with Lisa Allardice for The Guardian, in a smart London restaurant last week, Winterson concedes, (in response to the Allardice’s statement that creating this novel (Frankisstein) would have taken her down some unlikely digital paths).“I did worry about that. Watching guys have sex with bots, female sex dolls start at around $2,000 for a really crap one”, she said, and it was no surprise to learn that they are “entirely fantasy. They’ve got huge tits and small waists and long legs, but of course what they haven’t got, and never will have, is a clitoris. They don’t have to worry about that!”

It’s interesting to me how the current crop of writing that is very much in vogue is AI based, much like mobile photography and art. Both arts mirror the trends. While the Machine Stops, represented a sci fi fantasy and immense treasured escape from my living reality, now at 50, Winterson and McEwan, along with the AI of smartphone visualisation represent, our new reality, and are the forces driving the process. Today, this mutual cultural presence is the next revolution, it is not just present within photography, it is reaching all arts. In 2015 Taylor Davidson, for Time magazine, described the camera of the future as an app, “a software rather than a device that compiles data from multiple sensors. The smartphone’s microphone, gyroscope, accelerometer, thermometer and other sensors all contribute data as needed by whatever app calls on it and combines it with the visual data”. Stephen Mayes, went on to contribute “and still that’s not the limit on what is already bundled with our digital imagery. Our instruments are connected to satellites that contribute GPS data while connecting us to the Internet that links our data to all the publicly available information of Wikipedia, Google and countless other resources that know where we are, who was there before us and the associated economic, social and political activity”.

This is the life we now live, we need to ensure we flesh out, some of the moral dilemmas within the drama of everyday life and remember what makes us human. We need no one to write us an algorithm for how to treat others and how to live well, although some humans, may be all the better for it.

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 #mobilephotographyandimagery.

Poetic Medium, Jun Yamaguchi, David DeNagel, Caren Drysdale, Deborah McMillion, Art Noonan, Lydia Cassatt, Laila, Karen Axelrad, Eduardo Llerandi, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Chris Montcalmo, Vladislav Niko, Paul Toussaint, Nick Kenrick, Rita Colantonio, Vadim Demjianov, Allyson Marie, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, borsbschulz2009, Kat McClelland, Susan Detroy, Amo Passicos, Kerry Mitchell, Will Reyes, Susan Rennie, Gianluca Ricoveri, Kate Zari Roberts, Debara Splendorio, Ralf Mauvog, Peter Wilkin, Rob Pearson-Wright, Clint Cline, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Rita Colantonio, Catherine Caddigan, p.a.hamel, Jormain Cady.

Music this week is ‘As the Mist Clears’©Salt of the Sound

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 12 May 2019

13/05/201912/05/2019 by Joanne Carter

My daughter’s school prom this week manifested into the creation of a taut, magnificently controlled week, with smidgen’s, in my case, of personal survival. The entire week was one of lucid reflection as the period of her school days came to an end with an almost surrealist picture of her leavers celebration. The limpid clarity as an observer and witness to the life changes as she transgresses can only be compared to Claude Cahun’s photomontages, it looks like life, but it’s not life, exactly. Only art can achieve this degree of realism.

I end this week, with a juddering heart, strangely close to tears, knowing that the true emotional nature of this week, gloriously ramps up next week, as her exams commence…

Take heart, view this weeks mobile photography and art lancing showcase, as more and more mobile photographers and artists find us, we are privileged to share their work.

Louise Whiting, Pascale G, Debbie Sutherland, G Billion, Poetic Medium, Kat McClelland, Jun Yamaguchi, Deborah McMillion, Clint Cline, Paul Yan, Arko Rayhan, Prodromos, Vako Darispanashvili, Laila, Peter Wilkin, klimtt – cecilia Sao Thiago, woltarise, Rita Colantonio, Andreas Komodromos, Clare Pickett, Ian Horne, Vadim Demjianov, Tomaso Belloni, Kerry Mitchell, Montse Abad, Kristin, Nick Kenrick, Amo Passicos, Eduardo Llerandi, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Catherine Caddigan, Linda Hollier, Lorenka Campos, Barbara Braman, Sarah Kuhn, Judy Wahlberg, Lake MacIntosh, Anthony Madigan, p.a. hamel, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Charlaleeo, Robin Robertis, Tuba Korhan, Karen Axelrad.

Music this week is ‘You’re own kind of Beautiful’ by Alih-Jey Depena

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 28 April 2019

28/04/201928/04/2019 by Joanne Carter

“If you’re paying attention and making your own life as beautiful and rich and fun as it can be, you might just attract someone who’s doing the same thing, you can give up on tracking someone down with your butterfly net.” Words by Anne Lamott, who married this week at Deer Park Villa, in Fairfax, California. She met her husband through a dating site, called OurTime, a matchmaking site for the over 50’s. She had been single for a long period and felt absolutely no wanton feelings to change that. When asked, by the New York Times writer, Lois Smith Brady, 26th April 2019, why she stayed single so long, she replied that she was shy and introverted and hated leaving the house, particularly for parties.“If I go to a party, I become a Roz Chast character with my arms hanging at my sides and I feel like I’m developing a tic,”. Lamott has has published 18 memoirs and novels, many about being a recovering alcoholic, single mother, perpetual worrier and late-in-life churchgoer. I’ve read many of her books, you knew that was coming, right? I read incessantly, there’s only one thing that frustrates me about reading and that is that I can’t write and view images at the same time. I’m good at multi-tasking but not at that. Perhaps, it’s a learning difficulty, yesterday morning I spent many hours supporting one of my children as they undertook an updated private disability assessment with an acclaimed consultant, to enable them to successfully progress onto the next stage of their life. Feeling emotionally, mentally and physically drained post test, we both later collapsed at home, for a while. Disability diagnoses, if necessary, are crucially important when navigating this world. So many obstacles appear very quickly insurmountable without the correct support and often are but with it, you can fly.

What I love about Lamott, is she is a fighter, as I am, as my family are, we are a strong and very healthy, positive, loving unit, that’s not to say, life is easy because it is not but we try to focus on the things that really matter, whilst simultaneously fighting to keep the wolves from the door. Smith Brady, closed her article in the New York Times describing Lamott as ,’A natural cheerleader, especially for underdogs’. Lamott later posted on her Facebook page, “never give up, no matter how things look or how long they take. Don’t quit before the miracle.” And so, I say to all of you incredibly talented mobile photographers and artists out there, I can reveal, very candidly that there is a miracle opening here and I am going to ensure you’re all cordially invited to be part of it, it is coming and I am very excited. Stand by me, there is ecstasy in paying attention.

Paul Yan, Hanna Martins, Anastasia Potekhina, Jun Yamaguchi, Cathrine Halsor, borisbschulz2009, Debara Splendorio, Tricia Dewey, Sherrianne100, Laila, qingxian guo, Eduardo Llerandi, Michael Brunsfeld, Fiona Keyes, Scott Simpson, Kat McClelland, Erika Brothers, F4810P, Susan Detroy, Enio Godoy, Rita Colantonio, Lorenka Campos, Emma Dauvin, Lawrence Lazare, Peter Wilkin, Nick Kenrick, Kathy Clay, Milly M, Tomaso Belloni, Arko Rayhan, Anthony Madigan, jillian2 – Jill Lian, Gianluca Ricoveri, Tuba, Kate Zari Roberts, p.a.hamel, lifequest22, Ioannis Sidirpoulos.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 7 April 20019

07/04/201907/04/2019 by Joanne Carter

After scoring a hat trick, I am back! As some of you will have noticed, I was off last week. Not one to take life easy, I managed to cram it with, Mother’s Day, my 50th birthday and a serious lung infection. An accomplishment even by my own standards. The lung infection leading the way, I spent my days and continue to do so, (desperately trying to avoid another hospital admission), dosing up with antibiotics, sleeping sitting upright (it can be done, I’ve learnt, once complete exhaustion sets in) and reading a wide variety of books. I got it down to two books every two days, a record for me. This is all in sharp contrast to the preceding two weeks where I, at least felt like, flew around Amsterdam and swanned around Paris, with a scrum of journalists in close contact throughout, trying, initially politely, to avoid some persistent esoteric amorous advances. No doubt, the grounds I picked up the lung infection but that’s a little unjust; I feel quite hip these days, sharing a serious autoimmune disease with a raft of celebrities. ‘Lady AppWhisperer‘, has a bit of a ring to it, don’t you think? The main treatment for serious autoimmune diseases (for the uninitiated) are strong immunosuppressant drugs. These are delivered to my home address every two weeks, straight from a refrigerated van, handed to me in person and placed immediately into my own fridge (middle shelf, with nothing touching the contents, ‘not too close to the back, front or sides‘, my nurse voiced, as she inspected my placement). Then every two weeks, I inject myself, the fun part is I get to select the location, will it be my left or right thigh this week? Or perhaps and I’m still striving to gain confidence, will it by my abdomen, just along from my tummy button, hmm – the mental battle continues for that one. The result is that in order to reduce the immune system attacking itself, my immune system is reduced to next to nothing, therefore, any bugs floating around, once caught, take quite a bit of shifting and this lung infection is still lingering and I foresee, will continue in a similar vein for the next week or so. It’s proving to be the hardest secondary illness I’ve had, since original diagnosis to eliminate…

Speaking of books, one was bought for me this week by my eldest son, Jake, ‘Do No Harm’ by Henry Marsh. It’s a book by a neurosurgeon (Henry Marsh) of forty years and once picked up, hard to put down. Perfect when you’re confined to bed. Reading the accounts and surgeries of his poor patients, certainly helped to keep my own predicament in perspective. One quote from this book stays with me “Anxiety might be contagious, but confidence is also contagious” and of course, that’s what we strive so hard, to build here at TheAppWhisperer for the community of talented mobile photographers and artists that share their work with us. This weeks mobile photography & Art Showcase is a bumper one (I missed last week, see above), as it plays out, you’ll view, what is sure to be called, a ‘superbly original and exquisite spellbinding twenty first love story’, asserted by many of the major mobile photographers and artists operating in our world today. It’s pure poetry, mysterious and yet glittering, enjoy!

Music this week – ‘You’re Still With Me (alternative ending) ©Ali Handal

Rita Colantonio, Deborah McMillion, Kristie Benoit, aka Tman, Jon Arne Foss, Paul Toussaint, Lorenka Campos, Isabel Afonso, borisbschulz2009, Paul Yan, Tomaso Belloni, Candice Railton, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Susan Detroy, Kat McClelland, Jun Yamaguchi, zeeyan, Eduardo Llerandi, Ian Clarke, zeeyan, Eduardo Llerandi, Ian Clarke, Linda Hollier, Clint Cline, Catherine Caddigan, Laila, Oola Cristina, Gianluca Ricoveri, Vako Darispanashvili, Kate Zari Roberts, Judy Wahlberg, Susan Blase, Michael Beresin, Hanni K, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Montse Abad, Karen Axelrad, Yasuo Furue, Basak Aytek, Poetic Medium, Catherine Caddigan, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Susan Rennie, Tuba Korhan, Fleur Schim, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Paula Broom.

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

25/02/201924/02/2019 by Joanne Carter

“Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.” ― Toni Morrison, Beloved. I read a lot as a child and I still read a good deal as a adult. Beloved, by Toni Morrison is one book that I read as a teenager, that really stayed with me. My great friend Rachel and I were hungry for literature, we read the same books, at the same times and then studied and reviewed them together. Rachel went on to teach A level literature at a grammar school. Beloved is not an easy read, compared I suppose with something like To Kill a Mocking Bird and by saying that, I do not mean to portray the latter as ‘easy to read’, but it is an incredibly rewarding read and it’s one that never gets tired. “Beloved is one of the few American novels that take every natural element of the novel form and exploit it thoroughly, but in balance with all the other elements. The result is that it is dense but not long, dramatic but not melodramatic, particular and universal, shocking but reassuring, new but at the same time closely connected to the tradition of the novel, and likely to mould or change a reader’s sense of the world”, Jane Smiley. Morrison has just published a new book, spanning five decades its said ‘underscores her rage and linguistic brilliance‘. The title is ‘Mouth full of blood’ and I hope to read it soon.

Literature is on a par with photography and art, they’re not dissimilar, each image tells its own story and that story is interpreted by the reader based on their own life experiences. Each image has been created with the upmost intelligence and hope. It is about the relationship between the artist and the viewer, it is important to become literate in both art forms. “writing with photographs constitutes not a minor subset of literary practice, but [is] rather a founda- tional aspect of the modern reading experience” (Beckman and Weissberg xiii). I am planning on expanding on these thoughts in our forthcoming book ‘Away with Words’ and would love it if you would contribute. To find out more about that, please go here.

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured this week:

Laila, Robi Gallardo, Deborah McMillion, Jean Hutter, Kerry Mitchell, Robin Robertis, Sergiy Beliayev, Peter Klein, Oola Cristina, Karen Axelrad, Susan Blase, Deborah Field, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Qingxian Guo, Chet K, Candice Railton, Kat McClelland, Vadim Demjianov, Kate Zari Roberts, Luc Borell, Jun Yamaguchi, Lydia Cassatt, Deborah Field, Catherine Caddigan, Gianluca Ricoveri, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Juta Jazz, Barbara Braman, Susan Rennie, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Borisbschulz2009, ritacall, Fleur Schim, Clint Cline, Eduardo Llerandi.

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

17/02/201917/02/2019 by Joanne Carter

When my eldest son was at boarding school, there was the most incredible sensory garden for all the children to enjoy, it was an empowering experience and helped many of the children to blossom. A sensory garden has the ability in many ways to become a sensory room. If you’re not familiar with the umbrella term ‘sensory room’ they are essentially rooms, with special lighting, music and objects, a therapeutic place, one of safety in which to deescalate experiences and promote self care, resilience and recovery. When we view art, it’s important to use all five senses too, as much as possible, to not just look and move on but to really try to understand the image, to get into the picture, literally.

Mobile art is as much about presence as the senses, about the awareness of what it is to move through it. Whether the artist themselves has fully utilised all of their senses when creating the art, we can heighten our own experience by not only cascading into the picture but by creating circumstances in which that might happen. When we participate in life with all our senses, whether we are in a sensory garden, a sensory room, viewing art, or making love, it is a far more rewarding form of participation and one that you will feel all the better for by throwing yourself into.

In keeping with my New Year Resolutions, this week you’ll find me at the Intercontinental Park Lane Hotel, as I start preliminary judging the Pink Lady Food Awards.

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured this week:

Clint Cline, Sergiy Beliayev, Susan Blase, sculptorli, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Oola Cristina, Paul Yan, Eduardo Llerandi, Laila, Kat McClelland, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Deborah McMillion, Scott Simpson, Jean Hutter, Lorenka Campos, Shel Serkin, Jose Matos, Catherine Caddigan, Ade Santora, Rita Cal….., Jun Yamaguchi, Anastasia Potekhina, Hanni K, Enio Godoy, Candice Railton, Gianluca Ricoveri, Arko Rayhan, Juta Jazz, Sherrianne100, Rob Pearson-Wright, Kate Zari Roberts, Maarten Oorwijn, Qingxian Guo, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Barbara Nebel, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Karen Axelrad, ArrrRT eDUarD, Debara Splendorio, p.a. hamel, Maurizio Zanetti.

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

10/02/201910/02/2019 by Joanne Carter

“The feelings of desperation and unhappinness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappinness stretch your whole sensibility”. A quote by Francis Bacon but one I’m inclined to disagree with. Rufus Wainwright once admitted that he was terrified to settle down into a happy relationship, because without the emotional drama that came from all those dysfunctional love affairs, he was afraid of losing access to ‘that dark lake of pain’ he felt was critical to his music. I disagree that we should all be addicted to suffering, we need to be able to trust pleasure and utilise it to help create art. Too many artists put their faith in anguish. To have faith in the suffering muse, can cause us to become tormented artists, or to fetishise suffering. To trust love to create art, is more valuable for our mental health. Love your work, love it like it loves you and let it love you. There’s a trust in that love, the fiercest trust of all and I have in spades for you. Huge congratulations to all the artists featured this week.

In keeping with my New Year Resolutions, you’ll find me at the press preview this week of Diane Arbus: In the beginning and Kader Attia: The Museum of Emotion at the Hayward Gallery, SE1. I’ll report back but am expecting it to be nothing short of fabulous. It’s open to the public from 13 February until 6 May.

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured this week:

“The feelings of desperation and unhappinness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappinness stretch your whole sensibility”. A quote by Francis Bacon but one I’m inclined to disagree with. Rufus Wainwright once admitted that he was terrified to settle down into a happy relationship, because without the emotional drama that came from all those dysfunctional love affairs, he was afraid of losing access to ‘that dark lake of pain’ he felt was critical to his music. I disagree that we should all be addicted to suffering, we need to be able to trust pleasure and utilise it to help create art. Too many artists put their faith in anguish. To have faith in the suffering muse, can cause us to become tormented artists, or to fetishise suffering. To trust love to create art, is more valuable for our mental health. Love your work, love it like it loves you and let it love you. There’s a trust in that love, the fiercest trust of all and I have in spades for you. Huge congratulations to all the artists featured this week.

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured this week:

Buzz Kills, Irene Irene Marchuk Oleksiuk, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Robin Robertis, Tricia Dewey, Tuba Korhan , Clare Pickett, Robi Gallardo, Ransom Candice Railton, Hanni K, ArrrRT eDUarD, Jun Yamaguchi, Eduardo Llerandii, Rita Colantonio , Tomaso Belloni, Nashira1901, Cathrine Cathrine Halsør, Dieuwke Geervliet, Nelson Goncalves, Poetic Medium, Gianluca Ricoveri, Barbara Braman, Karen Axelrad, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Amo Passicos, Matthew Teter, Kate Zari Roberts, Karen Axelrad, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Laila, Luison – Lrh Arquitecto, Sherrianne100.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 3 February 2019

03/02/2019 by Joanne Carter

The path of true love… did it ever run smoothly? I don’t think anyone can say agree positively with that. Arguing the toss with someone you love – can be futile and the consequences make it uncomfortable. Disagreeing with restraint, is the ideal but how many of us do that, all of the time? Whether this week has meant you’ve loaded the dishwasher in silence with your partner, or with strong words and broken crockery, we have to make a time to come together and try not to cross some of the ideological lines. So, how do we do that? How do we get back to that initial feeling of being passionately in love? Well, this week, having cut one of my fingers gravely, way too early in the morning, I’ve been somewhat restricted in what I can do, driving, cooking, typing and washing my hair. Fortunately, my husband took care of the latter yesterday and it was a mutually blissful. Touch is a very powerful feeling and its not just physical, as you will notice when viewing this weeks showcase. You’ll be touched by the powerful mobile imagery and the story that unfolds. Each image a story in itself and built together as one hit musical. Expressing creativity is an essential human trait, if you don’t bring forth what is within you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you (Gospel of Thomas) – not that I’m terribly religious.. No more is this apparent than in one of Britains treasured artists Tracey Emin and I’m off to meet her this week. Perhaps best known for her shortlisted Turner Prize 1999, work entitled ‘My Bed’. I’ll report back on how that goes, wishing you all a very beautiful creative, week ahead.

Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week, it’s one of true splendor. 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 #mobilephotographyandimagery.

Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured this week:

Tracey Grumbach, Lorenka Campos, Poetic Medium, Karen Axelrad, Kerry Mitchell, Kat McClelland, Barbara Braman, Deborah Field, Clint Cline, Luison, Amo Passicos, Laila, Jun Yamaguchi, Maurizio Zanetti, Candice Railton, Rob Pearson-Wright, Gianluca Ricoveri, Tomaso Belloni, Jill Lian, Donald Williams, Barbara Nebel, Loulou Buntbein, Serigiy Beliayev, Salwa Afef, Catherine Caddigan, Lydia Cassatt, Jon Arne Foss, Juta Jazz.