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OPPO celebrated smartphone photography excellence at Paris Photo 2023

By in Photography

OPPO celebrated smartphone photography excellence at Paris Photo 2023

In partnership with

The company took centre stage at the recent Paris Photo 2023 as an associate partner, the only smartphone brand taking part. During the exhibition, OPPO and Hasselblad announced plans to co-develop next-generation HyperTone Camera Systems. Following aesthetics, this next-generation camera system will help to redefine mobile imaging, blend technology with artistry, and usher in a new era in computational photography.

Paris Photo proved to be the perfect platform for OPPO to showcase its smartphone imaging capability, including its latest Find N3 series, which brings premium mobile photography to foldable smartphones. Taking another step towards smartphone camera supremacy, HyperTone will be followed by advanced camera systems developed in close collaboration with legendary Swedish camera manufacturer Hasselblad.

Showcasing the 2023 OPPO imagine IF Photography Awards

Photography and woman in traditional costume at OPPO Paris Photo 2023

Photographer Ahei Huan (right) and a subject of some of his award-winning photographs

(Image credit: Courtesy OPPO)

The event also provided the smartphone giant with an opportunity to showcase work from the 2023 OPPO imagine IF Photography Awards, a competition that explores new dimensions in smartphone photography. Over 700,000 entries were received from over 50 countries, all working to the theme of ‘Beyond the Image, Beyond Imagination’.

The judging panel included prize-winning documentary photographer Liu Xiangcheng, Norwegian photographer and Hasselblad Master Tina Signesdottir Hult, landscape photographer and member of the China Photographers’ Association Wang Jianjun, and Hasselblad Ambassador and fashion photographer Yin Chao.

Panel discussion for OPPO Paris Photo 2023

Photographers Tina Signesdottir Hult, Wang Jianjun, Yin Chao and Ahei Huan at Paris Photo 2023

(Image credit: Courtesy OPPO)

A total of 15 awards were given, with Chinese photographer Ahei Huan receiving the OPPO imagine IF Master of the Year (Gold Award). Huan’s series, Daughters of the Moon, documented the lives of the Yi people in the Daliang Mountains in Sichuan; work that also won him an invitation to the Hasselblad Image Training Camp.

The shortlisted entries to imagine IF were showcased across eight distinctive ‘chapters’, The Distant View, Portrait, Night Scenery, Colours, Landscape, The Taste of Memories, Light & Shadow, and Chapters of a Life. Paris Photo also provided an opportunity for OPPO to exhibit work by the judges, including Tina Signesdottir Hult’s intense portraiture and Wang Jianjun’s dramatic landscapes.

OPPO Paris Photo 2023

(Image credit: Courtesy OPPO)

OPPO believes that smartphone photography can unlock the world, revealing new insights into destinations and cultures. With this in mind, continued its photographic journey with a trip to Seville. Invited participants were given the chance to try out the new camera’s capabilities in one of Europe’s most photogenic cities. The Find N3 marks the first time that OPPO and Hasselblad’s flagship-level imaging quality has been incorporated into a folding device.

folding oppo phone screen

OPPO Find N3 screen

(Image credit: Courtesy OPPO)

In 2024, OPPO and Hasselblad will launch their next generation of the ‘HyperTone Camera System’, building on the sophisticated set of aesthetic-driven algorithms that enhances portraiture, low light situations and even the way that photographs are displayed and rendered on the device’s folding screen. The HyperTone Camera System is poised to become the new benchmark for smartphone photography, by pushing the limits of what’s possible in smartphone imaging, and by blending unparalleled image quality with the artistic legacy of one of the most iconic names in photography.

Photographer points to image at OPPO Paris Photo 2023

Photographer Wang Jianjun with one of his works

(Image credit: Courtesy OPPO)

The OPPO Find N3 combines all the advantages of a folding device – compact, discreet and elegant – with the photographic capabilities of a flagship device. Thanks to the ongoing collaboration with Hasselblad, OPPO is ensuring that perfect images are on hand, regardless of the conditions. 

For more information on OPPO’s activities at Paris Photo, the imagine IF Photography Awards and Project, and devices like the OPPO Find N3 and N3 Flip, visit OPPO.com and ParisPhoto.com

parisphoto.com

Film Photographers: At 11AM, You’re Getting the Best News Ever

By in Photography

Film Photographers: At 11AM, You’re Getting the Best News Ever

Film photographers: it’s time to get very, very hyped. It’s no secret that film photography hasn’t just experienced a revival, but it’s been back. And at 11am EST today, news is coming that’s going to get you excited in a way that you haven’t been in a while. We’re not talking about something new from one of the companies that make people divided on their responses: so immediately, Fujifilm and Lomography are out of the question. It’s not coming from Kodak either; they had a moment to shine with their exorbitantly expensive super 8 camera. Nor is this coming from CineStill, who has been under some fire recently for eye-rolling drama on social media and in email inboxes. So who else is left?

So what’s coming? Well, here are a few hints:

A First of its Kind in Several Years

There hasn’t been a product like this released in a very long time. And we’re going to explain why and how that’s possible later on today at 11am EST. In fact, we think we’re one of the only reputable photography publications with the knowledge and staff that can talk about this specifically.

Landscape Photographers are Going to Adore it

When you’re out hiking during the golden hour, you’re going to be really in love with the results you get. More importantly though, you might really also like what it can do during the blue hour or with cityscapes in inclement weather. It’s going to make vivid scenes that much better.

Portrait Photographers Will Love it

The jokes about DEM TONEZ are going to be very real with what’s coming. The coatings on this are also going to give you the vintage feeling that everyone loves.

Street Photographers are Bound to Find a Great use For it

I’m really looking forward to my upcoming vacation where I can go around NYC and shoot street photography unburdened by the pressing deadlines of gear reviews. What’s coming today is bound to create beautiful street photography images. In fact, it reminds us of what Jane Dickson made many years ago when we interviewed her.

Conceptual Photographers will Want to get Experimental with this Stuff

We’ve interviewed a ton of photographers over the years, many of them being conceptual shooters. And considering how they like imperfections in their photographs, and many of them don’t like using Photoshop, this is going to excite them with possibilities.

It’s Going to Slap Clinical Perfection in the Face

Perhaps my favorite thing about what’s coming later today is that it’s slapping clinical perfection in the face. Remember a few years ago when Sony thought that onion bokeh was an issue but literally no one else did? Well, this new product is bringing it back. At 11am EST, you’ll be able to pay attention right here on the Phoblographer as the news breaks.

NFT bubble has truly burst, but do they have a future?

By in Art World News

NFT bubble has truly burst, but do they have a future?

Many strange things happened in the global economy during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, but few as curious as the NFT boom of 2021.

Barely anyone knew what a non-fungible token (NFT) was at the start of that year. By the end of it, more than $40 billion (€36.6 billion) had been spent on blockchain-recorded digital assets and artwork. That made the sector almost as valuable as the global art market itself.

If 2021 was the boom, then 2022 was the bust. In January 2022, the market reached its dizzying height but by September of that year, trading volumes had fallen by a gigantic 97%.

The NFT crash was part of the wider cryptocurrency sector wipeout, which saw an astonishing $2 trillion loss of value.

So, are NFTs simply dead, or is there some kind of future for them?

In early November 2023, OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, announced it was laying off half its workforce. Then there was a bizarre event at a promotional event in Hong Kong for the “Bored Ape Yacht Club,” one of the best-known NFT collections. Dozens of people reported “severe eye burn” after attending the event, which featured heavy use of ultraviolet lighting.

None of that is good news yet there have also been signs recently of a very modest revival in the battered sector, with trading volumes edging up recently after falling steadily throughout 2023.

Crypto mania and ‘clubby’ exclusivity

When the NFT boom took off in the summer of 2021, Andrea Barbon was one of the many people intrigued by the potential of the new innovation.

Schweiz St. Gallen | Assistenzprofessor für Finanzwissenschaft | Andrea Barbon
Finance professor Andrea Barbon was fascinated by NFTs from the beginningImage: Andrea Barbon

He quickly created and sold his own collection, a set of computer-generated fractal images.

“This venture sparked in me a profound curiosity and the willingness to delve deeper into NFTs,” Barbon, a finance professor at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, told DW.

“My fascination with the blend of art, technology and finance that NFTs represent motivated me to study them in extensive detail, exploring their potential impact on various sectors and their role in the future of digital ownership and creativity.”

From the start, many were dismissive of NFTs. Bill Gates famously said they were “100% based on the ‘greater fool theory'” — the idea that one can make money through the purchase of overvalued, fundamentally worthless assets  as long as there is a “greater fool” who will come along and pay even more.

“Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely,” Gates joked in an apparent reference to the Bored Ape collection.

Yet NFTs took off. Perhaps the unique circumstances of the time, when the pandemic meant people around the world were spending unusual amounts of time online and at home, played a part.

Barbon says the cryptocurrency boom, in full flow in 2021, fueled excitement in NFTs while user-friendly platforms such as OpenSea made it very easy for people to buy and trade them.

Then there was the exclusivity factor, cultivated by celebrity purchases and the creation of NFT clubs.

“The allure of NFTs was further amplified by their novelty, the promise of high returns and their role as status symbols within the crypto community,” Barbon said. “This combination of technological innovation, market dynamics and cultural factors created a perfect storm that propelled the NFT boom.”

NFT: A bubble if ever there was one

For Barbon and his colleague Angelo Ranaldo at the Swiss Finance Institute, NFTs represented a fascinating field of study. As part of their academic research, they examined more than 15 million NFT transactions, worth around $18 billion, between January 2021 and September 2022. They came to the conclusion that the whole market represented a bubble.

“We observed a pronounced tendency for bubble-like behaviors in the NFT market,” Barbon said. “This was characterized by rapid price surges, often doubling within days or even hours, followed by steep declines. These fluctuations offered significant returns for investors but also posed substantial risks.”

Something else they noticed was that some investors showed an ability to consistently capitalize on the market’s volatility, making significant amounts of money, while others displayed more reckless behavior.

“The market experienced inflated valuations driven more by speculative fervor than underlying fundamentals,” he found.

BdTD Israel | Multimedia Kunstaustellung
Barbon believes NFTs still have a role to play in the art worldImage: Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo/picture alliance

Doubts will remain but NFTs may endure

Some NFTs have had stunning collapses in value. The Bored Ape collection for example, which became especially popular with celebrities, has lost more than 90% of its value, amounting to several billion dollars. The singer Justin Bieber and the Brazilian footballer Neymar are among those to have spent around $1 million each on Bored Ape NFTs, only to see the value all but disappear.

The fallout from the celebrity NFT craze continues to this day. This week, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo was hit with a class-action lawsuit seeking at least $1 billion in damages for his role in promoting NFTs issued by the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

As a result, there is deep underlying skepticism about the market. But Barbon says it can still have a future, especially if its returns to its origins as a marketplace for digital artists.

“They are not just a technological novelty but a groundbreaking innovation with practical applications,” he said. “NFTs have revolutionized the market for digital art, providing contemporary artists specializing in digital media a platform to authenticate and monetize their creations.”

He also sees other possible uses for NFTs beyond the art world in realms like digital identity and the ownership of virtual assets.

Yet the bubble and the huge losses incurred means there will be a big question mark over NFTs for a long time to come.

Edited by: Tim Rooks

NFTs: Hype – or here to stay?

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Odia sand artist Manas Kumar Sahoo creates sculpture to spread awareness on World AIDS Day

By in Sculpture

Odia sand artist Manas Kumar Sahoo creates sculpture to spread awareness on World AIDS Day
Odisha: Internationally acclaimed Odia sand artist Manas Kumar Sahoo has created beautiful sand art on the Puri sea beach with the message of Let Communities Lead to mark World AIDS Day. A sand sculpture highlighting a red ribbon the universal symbol of global solidarity and shared responsibility in the fight against HIV. However World AIDS Day is observed on December 1 to fight against HIV and extend support for people to survive the disease. This day is observed to create awareness about the sexually transmitted disease which was observed in 1988 for the first time. The theme of this year is “Let Communities Lead” heres how communities especially those most affected by HIV have been demonstrating their resilience and upheaval to end HIV by 2030.

Keeping ancestry vibrant: IVDM features Indigenous artists at an art exhibition

By in Native

Keeping ancestry vibrant: IVDM features Indigenous artists at an art exhibition

OCOTILLO – From a deep reflection on Dia de los Muertos about her origins and background, Jessica Anguiano, who grew up in the Imperial Valley and had an Indigenous grandmother, wanted to dedicate time to honor her roots in her artwork.

Anguiano’s art piece to be placed at Imperial Valley Desert Museum, titled “In my Grandmother’s Skin,” emerged from the urge for ancestral connection and diving into her most profound origins.

The unique beauty of Indigenous art through its connection with nature, ancestral techniques and traditions will be reflected in the work of over 17 Indigenous artists from the Southern California and Northern Baja California area who will have their art displayed in a multidisciplinary art exhibition, which will feature Indigenous artists at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum in January 2024.

Although IVDM is an indigenous museum and its focus is to highlight and celebrate culture, IVDM Executive Director Kristin O’Lear said that what makes this exhibition unique is connecting with indigenous artists specifically and not just with the indigenous tribes, organizations and local reservations, which the museum has connected with in the past.

“While we do a really good job interpreting how ancient peoples of this region lived in antiquity, we don’t have as much as we should in terms of how they are continuing to live very vibrantly today and in modern times,” O’Lear said.

“As a way to bridge a small gap, it’s one step in the right direction to host the art exhibition and highlight how Indigenous artists and Indigenous peoples are currently moving to this space,” O’Lear said, “and how art aids them in that no matter what they see with their art, what they speak in their art, really highlights that the Indigenous peoples are still very much present and that they are vibrant.”

It’s an opportunity for Indigenous artists to showcase their traditional art pieces while rooting for ancestry techniques and adapting to modern audiences, O’Lear said.

“I’m always trying to touch my roots and trying to give meaning to my art,” Anguiano said of her pieces, which have deep ancestral meaning to her.

Matilde Pacheco Navejas, Anguiano’s grandmother and a native of Jalisco from the Sierra, was a “curandera” and a “partera” in the Mexican region. She passed away at the age of 86 when Anguiano was 6 years old.

Knowing that her grandmother was in touch with the healing process through natural medicine and techniques was essential for Anguiano’s artistic side, inspiring her to create an art piece totally dedicated to her grandmother.

“The little that she taught me got embedded in me,” Anguiano said, “so I try to base all my artwork on her.”

Anguiano also holds other Indigenous roots from her father’s side, who was of native Yaqui heritage, and was forced to hide it because of persecution. However, Anguiano has been a source of light to her family background through her artistic voice.

“I always felt I wasn’t part of something, like something was missing in my life,” Anguiano said. “Recently I started researching, talking to my dad and asking him questions about my origins. That’s what came up with my painting.”

Introducing the Imperial Valley to ongoing conversations about the Indigenous community in the Imperial Valley and surrounding areas while bringing a new sense and appreciation of where they live is one of the main takeaways the exhibition facilitators want the community to have, to “(bring awareness) of the space in which they move with having ties back to the tribal communities,” O’Lear said.

“We are acting only as a facilitator but the artists themselves are the ones raising awareness about issues they feel are important to them as part of this exhibition,” O’Lear said.

Art comes naturally for Olga Navarro, one of the Indigenous artists who will also have her art piece placed at the upcoming IVDM exhibition. Navarro has a rooted talent for artwork with “chaquira” – small plastic beads, traditionally from the “Cucapáh” Indigenous tribe which are used for handmade beadwork.

“It’s an Indigenous craftwork from many years ago from our ancestors,” Navarro said in Spanish about where her inspiration for her art came from. “This craftwork was previously made by sea shelves and then we developed to ‘chaquira,’” she said. “My parents taught me how to make these bracelets.”

Her art piece consists of three bracelets, each of which is embroidered with plastic beads braided to and by each of the bracelets. Each bracelet has a landscape related to her Indigenous tribe formed by the plastic beads.

“I want to promote the indigenous craftwork,” Navarro said. “I want people to get in touch with different frames, draws and ornamental pieces. I want people to spread our culture in the United States.”

Antonia Torres Gonzalez, Wendell Sakiestewa, Camaray Davalos, Thomas Ward, Gloria Crosthwaite, Yanet Salazar Carillo, Sandra Carmona, Stacy Garbani, Amy RedFeather, Angel Garcia, Josue Vasquez, Theresa Jackson, River Garza, Summer Herrera and Lanise Luna are other Indigenous artists that will showcase their work at the IVDM art exhibition.

“Being able to connect with the artistic community has been really exciting,” Ryan Pagett, the IVDM curatorial research fellow, said. “This is not going to be an exhibition but it’s hopefully going to be like a professional development opportunity for IVDM.”

“Even more importantly, for the artists themselves, it gives them the opportunity to get to show off their work to the surrounding community,” Pagett, who is originally from Georgia where there are any federally recognized tribes at the moment, said.

Celebrating Indigenous art and honoring their cultural heritage while making people connect with their pieces are some of the takeaways the participating artists want people to get from the exhibition.

“The best is the finishing touch,” Anguiano said, “and how it will reverberate on others and they will relate to it.”

Blavatnik Galleries review: how art is war’s ‘most truthful witness’

By in Photography

Blavatnik Galleries review: how art is war’s ‘most truthful witness’

Since it was founded in 1917, London’s Imperial War Museum has quietly built up a vast collection of art created in response to conflict, said Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph. Its holdings include not only “some of the finest paintings of warfare in the nation’s possession”, but also hundreds of drawings, prints and sculptures, as well as some “12 million photographs, and 23,000 hours of film footage”. Where previously this “fine” trove of art and images was scattered throughout the museum, it now has a dedicated home courtesy of a purpose-built extension that at long last gives the public a chance to fully appreciate it. The new Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries contain all manner of materials, from wartime masterpieces by the likes of Eric Ravilious and Paul Nash to art created in response to recent conflicts in the Middle East, as well as ephemera including “propaganda posters”, “documentary footage of battle” and newsreel films. If there is one complaint about this “handsome” display, it is that it “could never hope to be big enough”. 

In the context of today’s geopolitics, the new space feels “not just topical, but essential”, said Stuart Jeffries in The Guardian. The centrepiece of the gallery is John Singer Sargent’s epic “Gassed”, six metres wide, depicting “a procession of wounded men stumbling, blindfolded, towards a dressing station”. Other works range from the angry – Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps’s 2007 photomontage of Tony Blair “holding his phone for a selfie against a background of burning oilfields” – to the reflective. Steve McQueen, appointed an official war artist in 2003, commemorated each of the 179 UK military personnel killed in Iraq with a postage stamp, juxtaposing images of the dead soldiers with “the silhouetted head of the Queen”. The stamps were deemed too controversial for Royal Mail to issue – almost, McQueen suggested, as if people were “ashamed” of the dead. 

“There is enough engrossing material on display here to keep you sobbing for a week,” said Waldemar Januszczak in . Doris Zinkeisen, the first official artist to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, for instance, depicted its inmates as “grotesquely skeletal and white, thrown out of the death huts like discarded rubbish”. More subtly, Walter Sickert’s “Tipperary” (1914) sees a woman at a piano in one of his trademark “gloomy” interiors: “the mournful notes counting the miles to Tipperary are as audible as a party next door”. Meanwhile, documentary material including letters, timelines and photographs “keep us grounded in the facts”. If the Imperial War Museum once felt like a “spooky” institution without a clear role, the new galleries grant it “gravitas and sincerity”. The Blavatnik Galleries have “achieved extreme pertinence”, and confirm art as “war’s most truthful witness”.

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Imperial War Museum, London SE1 (020-7416 5000, iwm.org.uk). Now open (free entry)

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