Mobile Photography Awards: Gorgeous Winners Highlight Phone Images As Art

By in Photography

Mobile Photography Awards: Gorgeous Winners Highlight Phone Images As Art
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You don’t need a fancy, high-end camera to snap masterful photos. The winners of the 13th annual Mobile Photography Awards highlight the boundless potential of phones and tablets as sophisticated imaging tools that have democratized fine-art photography.

“If it’s true what legendary street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson says, that our first 10,000 photos will be our worst, then it’s safe to say that mobile phone photography has given people an historic opportunity to get past 10,001,” the competition says on its website. “The MPA is a showcase for photographers and artists who have embraced this decisive moment.”

The juried awards, started in 2011, are the longest-running international competition open exclusively to photographs entirely shot and edited on mobile phones and tablets. The contest is open to phone photographers worldwide, with 7,000 images from more than 80 countries submitted for the latest round, and winners announced Wednesday.

Yajun Hu, a systems engineer from Shanghai, China, won grand prize for his captivating portfolio of street shots that harness the interplay of light, shadows, colors and silhouettes to capture the spontaneity of urban life.

“What attracts me to street photography is the uncertainty of what I will find,” Hu said in an artist’s statement. The photographer, who shot the winning images with a Xiaomi Ultra 13, first started snapping street scenes in 2015.

“Now, street photography has become a major part of my life and a deeper way for me to observe my city,” said Hu, who was also named MPA photographer of the year and won a $3,000 cash prize for the honor.

Images shot and edited on any mobile phone or tablet are eligible for entry to the contest. The 12 categories include portraits and self-portraits; landscape and wildlife; architecture and still life; and one digital art that allows for the use of AI.

“We see AI not just as a ‘trick,’ but a part of the creative artist’s toolbox,” MPA founder Daniel Berman said over email. “For our other categories we use both forensic and publicly available information to validate photos. We also ask entrants to submit untouched originals with metadata if we have a concern.”

Berman says the contest aims to amplify the power and potential of mobile photography. “The evolution of mobile photography,” Berman said, “has been nothing short of remarkable.”

You can see the winner of that and other categories below, and view all winners and honorable mentions here. The MPA is accepting entries for its 2024 contest through December 17.

Architecture/Still Life

Black And White

Landscapes and Wildlife

Macro And Details

People Photos

Portraits And Self Portraits

Silhouettes

Street Photography

The Darkness/Noir

Travel/Transportation

Visual FX/Digital Art

Water/Snow/Ice

‘Grounded by Our Roots,’ A New Indigenous Art Exhibition, Opens at the American Museum of Natural History

By in Native

‘Grounded by Our Roots,’ A New Indigenous Art Exhibition, Opens at the American Museum of Natural History
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By Native News Online Staff

April 04, 2024

Yesterday, New York City’s American Museum of Natural History unveiled a new rotating exhibit featuring works from five contemporary Indigenous artists from Canada and Alaska. 

Grounded by Our Roots, the exhibit containing 13 works was guest curated by Aliya Boubard (Sagkeeng First Nation) and is featured in the museum’s Northwest Coast Hall. The Hall received a complete overhaul in 2022 after five years of consultation and reinterpretation with Pacific Northwest Tribal Nations to better incorporate Indigenous perspectives and focus on living cultures. 

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Museum President Sean Decatur said that the Northwest Coast Hall was designed to incorporate special temporary exhibits like Grounded by Our Roots “as part of our commitment to ensuring that contemporary Native art and perspectives are always part of the hall.”

Boubard said that the artists in the exhibit exemplify the movement of contemporary Indigenous art inspired by their ancestors.

“The mid-1900s saw the rise of contemporary Indigenous art across North America,” she said. “No longer was art confined to regalia, wood carvings, or ceremonial objects—it began to appear in silkscreen prints, contemporary sculptures, modern fashion, and other forms. Fast-forward to today, and we see incredible works from contemporary Indigenous artists who are deeply inspired by those who came before.”

The artists featured in the exhibit include Hawilkwalał Rebecca Baker-Grenier (Kwakiuł, Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh); Alison Bremner Naxhshagheit (Tlingit); SGidGang.Xaal Shoshannah Greene (Haida); Nash’mene’ta’naht Atheana Picha (Kwantlen First Nation); and Eliot White-Hill Kwulasultun (Snuneymuxw First Nation).

Simultaneous with its new exhibit, the museum is in the midst of a major ethical awakening to address the more than 12,000 human remains—about 2,200 of which are Native American ancestors— it currently holds in its collection. Human remains came to the museum from archeological expeditions, private collectors, and local medical schools that used bodies of deceased individuals for anatomical study, according to museum president Decatur.

On Oct. 12, 2023, President Decatur announced policy changes to staff in an open letter. Immediate changes included preparing new storage for the remains in the museum’s collection and removing human remains—such as human bones, skeletons, mummies, and beads and instruments made from human bones—from 12 display cases.  

The museum now acknowledges an ethical obligation to return all human remains in its collection, but it’s been under a federal order to do so for the 2,200 Native American ancestors it’s held captive for more than 30 years.

The law, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) passed by Congress in 1990, required museums and federal institutions that possessed Native American human remains and their burial objects to catalog and return those ancestors and belongings within five years.

Like many institutions throughout the country, the American Museum of Natural History has been slow to make good on NAGPRA. Over the law’s 33 years, the museum has returned close to 1,000 Native ancestors, according to Decatur.

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ARS Chapter Hosts Photographer Winslow Martin’s ‘Forced Out’ to Raise Funds for Artsakh Refugees – The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

By in Photography

ARS Chapter Hosts Photographer Winslow Martin’s ‘Forced Out’ to Raise Funds for Artsakh Refugees – The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

LEXINGTON, Mass.  — The historic Depot in Lexington Center was filled to capacity on February 9 as the Lowell Lousintak Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Chapter hosted “Forced Out: Refugees from Artsakh in Armenia,” by Winslow Martin. It was a heartfelt evening of storytelling, photography, music, and poetry – all to benefit the displaced Armenians of Artsakh.

Before the official program began, guests were greeted by Martin during the cocktail reception, which set the tone for the evening, along with music provided by Datev Gevorkian on oud. Lowell Lousintak ARS Chair and Master of Ceremonies Sona Gevorkian talked about the mission of the ARS and the accomplishments of the Lowell chapter, which is one of the oldest chapters in the US, dating back to 1915.

Teni Apelian of Zulal singing Sareree Hoveen Mernem accompanied by Datev Gevorkian on oud

Easing into Martin’s photo presentation, Teni Apelian, of the acapella trio, Zulal, accompanied by Datev Gevorkian on oud, sang a touching rendition of Sareree Hoveen Mernem. This set the stage for Martin to captivate his audience with his amazing storytelling skills, photographs and his unwavering love for the Armenian people over the past 25 years. As a documentarian, Martin’s photographs were brought to life with stories of survival, sorrow, and hope of the people of Artsakh. His highlights were not only from the recent evacuation of 120,000 Armenians from Artsakh, but also from the war of 2020 and the relationships he made with the people of Artsakh and Armenia.

A poetry reading of “Akh Eem Artsakh, Akh Mer Artsakh” written by Varak Ghazarian, a diasporan Armenian from Los Angeles, who is currently living and studying in Armenia, was recited by Shakeh Dagdigan (Armenian) and Zarouhi Minassian Suggs (English). The poem was written days after the surrender in September of 2023 to express Ghazarian’s personal emotions of the loss of Artsakh.

Martin ended the evening with a final slide representing the ARS and all its work. In his own words, Martin is a self-proclaimed “Armenian by choice.” His most notable accomplishment to date was in the summer of 2023 when he compiled more than 140 of his photographs and had an exhibit at the National History Museum in Yerevan, depicting the daily lives of Armenians. He is the first living, solo artist, and non-Armenian to have the honor of a retrospective exhibition at the legendary History Museum of Armenia.

The chapter donated all the proceeds to the displaced families of Artsakh.

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