Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone
One iPhone in a very large crowd
In traditional photography, the time elapsed between the shutter snap and the careful, loupe & light table examination of the captured images for some unexpected surprise or Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" might be days or weeks. With photographer David Bergman's massive panorama of Tuesday's presidential inauguration, the challenge wasn't in waiting for the darkroom process to complete (although the Gigapan software did crank away on his MacBook Pro for over six hours to generate the 1,474 megapixel, 2 gigabyte master file); it was combing through the enormous image to discover those moments Bergman didn't even know he had photographed. Several commenters on Bergman's blog have already found themselves or family members in the crowd.
One moment that Bergman did discover quickly: a prominent attendee of the inauguration, 'bow-syncing' cellist Yo-Yo Ma, was caught in the panorama making an image of his own, using a familiar-looking smartphone. See the video zoom below for the context of Ma's snapshot in the larger image.
As digital imaging has replaced film photography for newsgathering and journalism, there have been counterexamples of newsworthy images that would have long been deleted except for the fact that they were shot on film instead of on memory cards. In this case, the image of Yo-Yo Ma and his phone wouldn't have been preserved, except that it was captured by chance and 'mined' out of the massive, frozen decisive moment.
Image & zoom video used with permission of the photographer; all rights reserved.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
heytpn said 2:56PM on 1-24-2009
oooh, big deal. Yo yo ma has an iPhone. so does my math teacher, but you don't see her on here. This is getting a little obsessive here, TUAW.
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Aloysius Snuffleupagus said 3:09PM on 1-24-2009
heytpn's right. What's with the cult speak around here? Henri Cartier-Bresson's "Decisive Moment" refers to the funeral of Ghandi or a soldier being cut down in the Chinese rebellion, not a celebrity using a consumer electronics device. Are you really calling that "newsworthy"? On par with a shot of Monica Lewinsky and Clinton embracing before the affair was discovered?
The iPhone is fun, it's cool, it's useful, it's often frustrating. But someone of note owning one and using it as a "newsworthy" event? How about a little perspective around here?
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Michael Rose said 12:36AM on 1-25-2009
Not to be contrary, but Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment had absolutely nothing to do with soldiers being killed or Gandhi's funeral. It was more about a leap over a puddle or the expression on a single face; it wasn't about capturing world-shaking events or the acts of great men, but recognizing the exact instant where the best possible connection between subject, camera and photographer could be made.
http://www.e-photobooks.com/cartier-bresson/decisive-moment.html
David Friend describes the concept thus:
"By 1932, at age 24, Cartier-Bresson had begun to devise a whole new manner of shooting pictures. He displayed an intuitive knack for choosing "the decisive moment," as it came to be called, that instant when a shutter click can suspend an event within the eye and heart of the beholder, an exhilarating confluence of observer and observed. His lyrical, loose, ingeniously composed images were a revelation."
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/friend.html
You may be thinking of Robert Capa, who took the legendary photo of the Spanish soldier being shot, or other famous war photographers.
[I worked at the monthly LIFE magazine until it closed in 2000. I know a little bit about photojournalism.]
Aloysius Snuffleupagus said 2:51AM on 1-25-2009
Michael Rose -
Well put, though I'm not sure I agree entirely. Besson explained it thusly: "the decisive moment, it is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression." That, of course, applies both to small moments (the man over the puddle) and the aggregate of small "decisive" moments that make up the form of larger, historical moments. Definitely wasn't thinking of Capa (who was amazing in his own right) and that iconic shot of the soldier in mid-collapse. Besson did a fair share of his own war photography (Spanish Civil war as well as the war in China). If you like his stuff (it seems you do) you might also like Sebastião Salgado - a master with a very similar aesthetic.
I too studied photography and photojournalism and do a bit of it myself (just the photography part). In any case, I'll stand by my original assertion that Yo Yo Ma and his iPhone don't pass the threshold for news or even a decisive moment. Nevertheless I apologize if I came across as shrill or "whiny". Being a huge Mac fan, reader of TUAW, etc., I suppose I'm a little sensitive to the stereotype of the cult and wanted to steer my favorite blog away from it. I probably should've just moved on.
Michael Rose said 11:09AM on 1-25-2009
I love Salgado, although I can't look at too many of his pictures in one sitting because I start getting weepy.
Rereading the post, I probably should have made it clear that one guy with a cello and an iPhone does not necessarily rise to a 'decisive moment' -- the point I was going for is that Bergman's 'massively parallel' photograph contrasts with traditional one-frame-at-a-time shooting in an interesting way.
Thanks, as always, for the constructive feedback!
pegasus said 3:20PM on 1-24-2009
Any info on the camera and lens used?
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Todd said 3:58PM on 1-24-2009
It's a Canon G10.
KaJe said 3:23PM on 1-24-2009
Here's some perspective... TUAW isn't written just for YOU TWO. Quit expecting everything posted to be to your tastes. If you don't like the article, hit the back button and STFU. Your whining won't change a thing.
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Aloysius Snuffleupagus said 6:17PM on 1-24-2009
I didn't see at whining. I certainly don't expect every article to be written to my taste, but as a loyal reader I thought it was fair to have a reaction to a piece of the content. Of course if our comments bothered you the way the article bothered us, you could have taken your own advice and hit the back button, etc. but your criticism is duly noted.
Jason said 3:24PM on 1-24-2009
Let it go already re: the bow-synching. I have every admiration for Mr Ma's work and can totally understand why they prerecorded it.
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Fleak said 3:37PM on 1-24-2009
Can you tell me which PixelFonts you used for the Info on the bottom left?
Cheers,
Shahin
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Oli said 3:38PM on 1-24-2009
Under the third flag from the left there is also a black dude with an iPhone 3G ;D
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Neil said 4:25PM on 1-24-2009
Slow news day huh?
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Ting said 4:33PM on 1-24-2009
Did anyone find Wally in amongst that crowd?
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HarmfulDose said 3:22AM on 1-25-2009
I found Waldo
buck-e said 4:13AM on 1-28-2009
Here's the swat team :)
teehee
http://www.sanjazakovska.com/poi/swat.jpg
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Charles said 3:12AM on 1-25-2009
They are all holding iPhones! Stop the presses!
Tom said 8:54PM on 1-24-2009
Hey, I was there with my iPhone too! Well, I'm not IN the photo, but my device was responsible for it! :)
http://flickr.com/photos/muzzville/3224309032/
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Scott said 6:56PM on 1-25-2009
I found another person using an iPhone 3G to take a picture. Its not the only one. However, this guy looks as if he is taking a picture of his ID badge/entrance badge. He is standing underneath the 5th pillar from the right, under the big flags.
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nvidia2008 said 10:57PM on 1-25-2009
Wow. This really reminds me somehow of that movie Vantage Point. In several years this kind of imaging can be done by government/military (if not already) in full gigapixel realtime... including face detection. :-0
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