Capturing Libya: Through a Hipstamatic Lens

To photojournalism purists, it was pure blasphemy: a prestigious prize, third place for photo of the year, granted to a New York Times photographer who’d used not a 35mm to document U.S. soldiers in Iraq, but simply, his iPhone — and an app called Hipstamatic. Immediately, traditionalists went berserk: “What we knew as photojournalism at its purest form is over,” one photojournalist lamented. Using Hipstamatic in a news report, another commentator proclaimed, was “cheating us all.”

I struggled trying to decide whether or not to put some iPhone photos in my portfolio. I decided that it was worth including them because 2012, as it has always been, the best camera is the one you have with you. I don't always need to use my SLR to capture photos that are meaningful to me and (hopefully) captivating to someone else.