School walk...into the fog by Steve John

Who: Steve John

Where: Posterous - Flickr

Why: Steve sets a new benchmark and style of iPhone artistry. Oh! He also reminds me of one of my favorite places in the world - Bath.

"The iPhone is a totally different beast and the best app developers are treating it so and creating the best apps."

4 Questions with Steve John

1. Most of your photos go through some sort of post processing within the iPhone itself. Which are your favorite applications? Also, do you follow a workflow as you move from the original to the final photo?

My favorite apps for modifying work inPhone are Juxtaposer, PhotoFx and TiltshiftGen. As far as workflow goes~ once I know something works I obviously use that workflow but what pushes me on is to experiment and play. So sometimes even when I'm certain something won't work I still to try it and see the results. Plus nothing is that certain and occasionally you create that bit of magic.

2. How has your fine arts background influenced your skills as an iPhone photographer?

Last of the Summer Flowers. by Steve John

Any creative discipline contributes to any other and my fine art background definitely influences my iPhonegraphy. Some compositions I want to capture and represent in a more painterly way. The color understanding that you develop in your painting practice helps when choosing from the myriad colors in your immediate surroundings.  Color is one of my creative driving forces and it is sometimes my instinct to hunt out color or sets of color. Fortunately I respond quickly to the ever changing colors in the built environment and that is sometimes what I am capturing (Color) over the actual subject matter.

3. Your iPhone artwork is simply amazing like your photos. Which do you find more fulfilling - iPhone photography or iPhone illustrations/sketches/paintings?

There is more of a struggle with creating a visually interesting and balanced digital painting with a finger on an iPhone.  I have created quite a large body of artworks with my iPhone  so the challenge to create new and interesting imagery means that the sense of achievement when one works is greater and so you would think that would make it the most fulfilling.  But whilst the iPhone painting is fulfilling in a sense of achievement way, the iPhoneography is equally fulfilling in the opposite way that it isn't labored and is more immediate and spontaneous.  Sometimes I feel like a cheat when I capture a great image on my iPhone by just sticking it out in front of me and pressing the screen although but that doesn't make it any less rewarding.  Having that luck of being in the right place at the right time can be wonderfully fulfilling.  So without wanting to sound too boring I'd have to say I find both iPhone painting and iPhoneography equally fulfilling. Great Question btw!

4. Moving forward, how else do you think the iPhone can improve as an artistic tool for both photography and other artwork?

Jack frost by Steve John

I look forward to the upgrades over time to the iPhone Camera but in truth I dread some of the changes that are going to come with the apps.  The intuitive nature and simplicity of my favorite apps is what attracted me to using them in the first place.  I am under the impression that there are a lot of other people out there who are enjoying being creative with their iPhones/ iPod touch's due to the intuitive nature and simplicity of the apps.  Why make applications for an iPhone that replicate those that you use on a desktop; they are different devices.  The iPhone is a totally different beast and the best app developers are treating it so and creating the best apps. Any improvements should come in incrementally through the creativity of the developers running parallel with users requests instead of changes as part of a race to create the biggest and best. We have been there before and it may well ruin the iPhones ability to capture our imagination as once our imagination gets caught up with too many things the creative spark gets blocked!

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I want to thank Steve for taking some time off his busy schedule to provide comprehensive answers to the questions above.