It’s an ubiquitous device that has come to be part of our lives: the smartphone. Not that we use it as a phone all that often (at least in my case), rather we check our emails, text, play games, listen to music – and take photos. Lots and lots of photos. But can any of the photos we take with our smartphones be considered art? Roger Guetta thinks so. “Smartphones democratize the art of photography. You don’t need expensive gear. Anyone with a phone has the potential to be an artist.”

Roger Guetta’s exhibition The Autumn of Love currently on show at Visual Voice Art Gallery consists entirely of his iPhone photography (or iPhoneography). Not that you could tell from looking at his work. Guetta’s floaty, layered, highly textured imagery certainly looks like nothing I have stored in iPhoto. Guetta captures and manipulates every image entirely on his iPhone using a series of advanced apps. “When I look at a motif, I already make a decision right there and then about what app I’m going to use.”And Guetta doesn’t limit himself to using one single app, but chooses several iPhone applications until he achieves the desired result. There is a growing community of iPhoneographers developing worldwide, and Guetta is a bit of a specialist when it comes to iPhone photography. Just recently he gave workshops and presentations of his techniques at the Apple Store in Montreal and at The Mobile Art Conference at NYU in New York City.

For his current exhibition at Visual Voice, Guetta printed his images on ephemeral, delicate tea-bag paper and had them embedded in large sheets of rag paper, hand-made to order by the local Papeterie St-Armand. Literally fusing cutting-edge technology with ancient traditions, he creates unique, tactile artworks. In a parallel approach, Guetta used vintage polaroid backs as frames for a series of small-sized iPhoneography prints, contrasting analog and digital methods.
If you’re curious about iPhoneography, swing by Guetta’s ‘finissage’ on November 26th at Visual Voice – he may share some tips and tricks.

Visual Voice Art Gallery, space 421
Roger Guetta
The Autumn of Love
November 12 – 27, 2011
www.visualvoicegallery.com