The Boston Globe
An exhibit at the Griffin Museum of Photography, “iSee: The Eyes of VII in the Hands of Hipstamatic,” shows how the preeminent photojournalists of the VII photo agency use an everyday tool to capture striking images. Mark Feeney writes that the photos are very much snapshots, with an air of spontaneity:
It’s a given that a high-powered photojournalist is going to have a smartphone. It’s equally a given that he or she is going to use it for photographs only as a last resort. So many of these pictures convey a sense of being taken on the fly. An analogy might be gifted painters working with Magic Marker or piano virtuosos playing on battered uprights. Of course the beauty (or trick) of Hipstamatic is that the battering is a technologically sophisticated ruse.
Related: Ben Lowy discusses role of Hipstamatic and similar apps in photojournalism (Poynter) || Earlier: New partnership enables Hipstamatic users to post directly to Instagram (Fast Company) | Photojournalists debate ethics of Instagram, Hipstamatic (Poynter) | Is Instagram’s social network dumbing down photography? (Poynter)