Susan Maxwell Schmidt Archives

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr/Instagram Group Showcase – 16 June 2019

16/06/2019 by Joanne Carter

“To be excellent at anything, it must cost you something“, a direct quote from ‘In Pieces’ by Sally Field. A book that she spent seven years writing, without ghost writers, unusual for her circle. This book made me weep this week. It’s a beautifully written intimate memoir as well as a gut wrenching self portrait, bordering on a personal investigation. Now at 71, Field felt the compelling need to assemble her fragmented past. Contrast that with ‘Normal People’ by Sally Rooney, another book I have been reading, a future classic by all accounts and a book the BBC are working on for a new tv drama. It’s a story written in less than one year, showing what it is to be young and in love at any time. It too bought me to tears. I’m always quite close, the price we pay… Whilst putting together this weeks mobile photography and art showcase, each carefully chosen image is so fascinating, assuming and expressing the status of work of art. I like to think of these images as characters I compose with and elevate them to stage, with a realist meticulousness and luscious concern for detail, invoking a narrative of uncommon richness and intensity with a radical reframing of the purpose. Enjoy.

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.

Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Clarisse Debout, Oola Cristina, Deborah Field, Deborah McMillion, Yariv Weinberg, Karen Axelrad, Kathy Clay, Sergiy Beliayev, Catherine Caddigan, Gianluca Ricoveri, Susan Rennie, Lorenka Campos, Damian De Souza, Jun Yamaguchi, borisbschulz2009, Catherine Caddigan, Arko Rayhan, Susan Detroy, Peter Wilkin, Laila, Paul Yan, Dragan Fly, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Clint Cline, Enio Godoy, Lydia Cassatt, Rita Colantonio, Kate Zari Roberts, Sheldon Serkin, Nick Kenrick, Tomaso Belloni, Eleni Gemeni, Jormain Cady, Elaine Taylor, Shelley Benjamin, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, Dr Christophe Christ, Sandra B Martins – Violet Martins.

Music this week is ‘Silver Bullet’ ©Alpha

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 March 2019

24/03/2019 by Joanne Carter

As a journalist of many decades, I’ve always been attuned to what is communicated to me and mostly I commit it to memory. I store up conversations and it is a treat for me to unwrap them at will. I may be in the bath, and recall a glorious conversation that made me laugh many moons ago and will laugh out loud, much to the amusement of my family. I may wake in the night and remember somber stories I have been told or witnessed and thus shed tears. But now there’s a new phenomenon too, to gather stories. Since the implementation of the mobile phone, people appear to have loud one-sided conversations wherever they may be. It’s good timing for me, because I have severe hearing loss and have only had digital aids for a few years. Since having these aids fitted, a whole world has opened up, or so it seems. It took me a while to progress to wearing digital hearing aids all day, when you have has spent most of your life without aids, suddenly hearing everything, can be really challenging, as with any radical lifestyle change. I remember sitting in a Drs waiting room one day and I could hear the other patients talking to each other. When my GP called me in to her room, I asked her if it was ‘normal’ to be able to hear other patients talking in the waiting room and she said, ‘yes, that’s normal’. And so, when on the bus the other day, I should not have been surprised to overhear a conversation that a woman was having with a friend. It appeared (to me) that she really didn’t care who overheard when she confided that her boyfriend had left her, for another friend (since renamed to ‘that slag’) and she was trying to sell a necklace on eBay that he had given her. The problem was, eBayer’s didn’t appear to believe the necklace was genuine and she was determined ‘not to give it away’. She said ‘I don’t wanna wear it anymore, I don’t want to think of him around my neck, touching my body’. One person who was interested on eBay wanted to see a copy of the receipt for evidence it was a valuable item. She didn’t have it because the necklace had been a gift from her boyfriend and she wasn’t going to ask him for it ‘now that he’s with that slag’ and so it went on. I have no idea whether she ever did manage to sell the necklace, for what she wanted but I was almost quite ready to vouch its genuineness after I got off at my stop. Of course, one of the advantages of wearing hearing aids, is you can take them out at will and remain in complete silence and go back to peace and beautiful memories.

Next week, I’m going to be in the gorgeous city of Paris for most of the week at a press event. I’ll report back, wishing you all a beautiful week too.

Tricia Dewey, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Sheriannnne, deanwgd608, Kat McClelland, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Jun Yamaguchi, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Bobby Chin, Rita Colantonio, Klaudia Cechini, Isabel Afonso, Candice Railton, Peter Wilkin, Lorenka Campos, Hanni K, Gina Costa, Sara Augenbraun, borisbschulz2009, Deborah McMillion, Clint Cline, Gianluca Ricoveri, p.a. hamel, Kate Zari Roberts, Susan Rennie, Manfred Majer, Barbara Braman, Catherine Caddigan, Fleur Schim.

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

03/03/2019 by Joanne Carter

Enthralling, unexpected, beautifully assembled this weeks Mobile Photography & Art Showcase will please all; for it upholds our passionate belief in the continuities of mobile art. Nothing comes from nothing: In the truest sense, these works are a sign of the times, each one, committed realism. This is a showcase bursting at its seams with astute pieces exposing meaningful disruption. Enjoy!

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

Oola Cristina, Scott Simpson, jon jon, Robin Robertis, Amo Passicos, Eduardo Llerandi, Deborah McMillion, Clare Pickett, Anastasia Potekhina, Jon Arne Foss, Y F, Karen Axelrad, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Jun Yamaguchi, Enio Godoy, Rob Pearson-Wright, Debara Splendorio, Tricia Dewey, Lindy Ginn, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Gianluca Ricoveri, Clint Cline, Hanni K, Tracey Grumbach, Liliana Schwitter, Kate Zari Roberts, Susan Rennie, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Barbara Nebel, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Salwa Afef, Candice Railton, Victor Reynolds, p.a.hamel, Poetic Medium, Rita Colantinio.

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.

Music this week is ‘Love you Forever’ ©Ryan Huston

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 Group Showcase – 4 October 2018

04/11/201804/11/2018 by Joanne Carter

Mobile photography has capsulated self portraiture, or selfies as they are known. Offering the ultimate notion of control, you’re not trusting someone else to capture you, you’re deciding how to frame yourself, you’re not relying on someone else to make you look good. The paradox at the heart of selfies is that they masquerade as a candid shot but in reality they are posed and often heavily edited. But at least for the younger audience, looking good, is not good enough, you need to look good in extreme scenarios. There’s a blurring between the lines of reality and fantasy, until they collapse into one another. Such was the case this week, as I wandered around town with my family. I noticed a movement at the very top of a skyscraper, then another movement, until I realised there were in fact two people on the roof. I alerted security and my husband captured a shot of them with his telephoto lens, later seized as evidence. Security hurried to the scene and before long, they returned with two young boys, no older than 13-14 years old. They’d been trying to capture the consummate selfie and almost paid the ultimate price. Its become so commonplace in this particular area to capture virtuosic selfies, that there’s a £10k instant fine for anyone spotted on the top of a building, if they’re 18 or over. These two boys, received no such fine but they were escorted from the area and driven home to their relieved (if they’d known) parents. Social media drives this of course, the more likes they receive, the more lucrative deals they can make and the more their fans cheer them on. Ultimately the notion of control with a selfie is disingenuous, once it’s posted online, it’s out there for public delectation, whether you live to see it or not. Fortunately, the images in this weeks showcase allowed all of our photographers to live, and each one blazes with passion for being. Enjoy!

Thank you to all artists for submitting your works. 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.

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

Karen Axelrad, Scott Simpson, Trish G, sculptorli, Tomaso Belloni, Oola Cristina, Y F, Liliana Schwitter, Enio Godoy, Eduardo Llerandi, Valeria Cammareri, partha.ts, Catherine Caddigan, Dina Alfasi, Rob Pearson-Wright, aka Tman, Srikanth Kamath, p.a. hamel, Luison, Jean Hutter, Amy Ecenbarger, Jun Yamaguchi, Lindy Ginn, G. Billon, Clint Clline, Gianluca Ricoveri, Candice Railton, R K, Kate Zari Roberts, Susan Rennie, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Tuba, Laura Peischl, KalterFisch, Fleur Schim, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Francesco Sambati and Deborah McMillion

Don’t forget to check out our online gallery and print sales here.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr Group Showcase – 28 October 2018

28/10/201828/10/2018 by Joanne Carter

Life is an enactment, art the outward manifestation of the scenes performed on an inner stage and no greater is this portrayal witnessed than in this weeks Mobile Photography and Art Showcase. Consciously desexed, I am somewhat a phenomenolgist as I curate each week. Infilitrating the discrepancies between reasoning and imagination, demanding the subjectivity of the objectiveness of each work of art, I invite all viewers to experience the anteriority of mobile art; the power, the strength and the hauntingly honesty of this new movement of art. As Emily Dickinson, whom I have been reading this week, knew, the truth that underlies all art is an apocalyptic yearning for ecstasy, the aura of euphoria is here. Enjoy!

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

partha.ts, David Hayes, Dina Alfasi, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, Frederic Hutter, Josephy Cyr, Cristina Rossi, Mark Swanson, jilllian2 – Jill Lian, Chris Feichtner, Woltarise, aka Tman, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Rob Pearson Wright, Shel Serkin, Clint Cline, Luison, Eduardo Llerandi, Barbara Nebel, Robert Laliberte, Poetic Medium, Oksana Shendrik, Kate Zari Roberts, Larissa Paschoalli, Sergiy Beliayev, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Jun Yamaguchi, Buzz Kills, Ioannis Sidiropoulos, Oola Cristina, Vadim Demjianov, Susan Rennie, Gianluca Ricoveri, Gina Costa, Lindy Ginn, Garry Ryon, Louise Whiting, Susan Rennie, Dina Alfasi, Larissa Paschoalli, Candice Railton, Tomaso Belloni, Oksana Shendrik, Robert Laliberte, Frederic Hutter

Don’t forget to check out our online gallery and print sales here.

Mobile Photography & Art – Flickr Group Showcase – 9 September 2018

09/09/201809/09/2018 by Joanne Carter

Mobile Photography and Art, to me, is about, among other things, interconnectedness of our lives, about what we choose to see and ignore as we move through our own worlds, about the power of small acts of decency. Our shared vision is so vivid and multilayered enabling what we produce to become something more than remarkable. The real joy in this weeks Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group Showcase, is the relentlessly compelling and extraordinary portrayal of lasting beauty. I have tried to create an atmosphere offering privileged access into multiple spheres of existence, discovering the secret languages of each work of art, conferring dignity and consequence with each image and the artists behind them, who too often pass unseen and unrecorded in our accounts of contemporary life. Enjoy!

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

Catherine Caddigan, Damian De Souza, klimtt – Cecilia Sao Thiago, Shel Serkin, TSOriginaux, woltarise, Susan Detroy, Jun Yamaguchi, Dixon Hamby, Enio Godoy, David Hayes, Candice Railton, Tomaso Belloni, Scott Simpson, Gianluca Ricoveri, Marguerite Khoury, Barbara Nebel, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Lennart Zinck, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Pam Morris, Jill Lian – jilllian2, Clint Cline, acornuser, Kristie Benoit, Karen Axelrad, Kate Zari Roberts, Lorenka Campos, Luther Roseman Dease, II, Gabriele Rodriquez, Poetic Medium, Xinjun Zhang.

Don’t forget to check out our online gallery and print sales here.