Apple puts iPhone art on display in its shops

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 Apple is turning its retail stores into art galleries featuring the work of professional photographers and other artists who use iPads, iPhones and Mac computers to create.

Travel photographer Austin Mann used an iPhone 6 to take otherworldly panoramic photos of an Icelandic glacier. Mann, who recalls mowing lawns for a summer as a seventh-grader to save up for his first, bright green iMac in 1998, says his use of an iPhone and high-end cameras is “split pretty even” when it comes to professional work.

“In the photography industry especially, when you are getting started you are always seeking gear, ‘If I could only get this $1,000 lens,’ ” he says. Using just an iPhone to take great photos encourages people to “shift away from focusing on gear and equipment.”

Apple commissioned the work of 12 artists at various stages of their career to create works meant to inspire. Showcasing the people who use its technology – in this case, painters, photographers, filmmakers and other visual artists – is a shift for a company long focused on making its products front and center. The artwork, done on iOS devices and Macs using various apps, is displayed on Apple’s website as part of an ad campaign called “Start something new.” And the company is replacing all product signage in its retail stores with the artwork. 

Technology has transformed the way people create. For painter Roz Hall, that’s meant shifting away from the canvases and acrylic paint to an iPhone app called Brushes. After not painting for years, Hall in 2010 read about a group of artists who started using their iPhones and sometimes iPads, which had just come out.

“I had an iPhone at home and I downloaded the Brushes app,” he says. “That was a wonderful, simple application.”

It was also challenging. When he painted on a canvas, he painted life-size works. Painting on a 3.5-inch screen was an entirely different thing.

“What I liked about it was that there was no setup,” Hall says. With all the prep work that comes with traditional painting, he says, “by the time you have everything out the moment has (often) passed.”