iPhone photography, why so popular?

Let’s put this clear. The camera in the iPhone is a crap! There is no doubt about that. And because of that, iPhone photography is getting more and more popular.
It’s all about effort. Humans feels better when they reach some point after some effort and suffering. Effort implies some kind of sufferance and this adds some value to the final result.
Usually the most admirable and incredible creations have been accomplished with the poorest and the most primitive tools. Just look at the huge art master pieces of the past. The artist didn’t have the resources, neither the technology. But after dedication and effort the final result lasted forever.

It doesn’t mean that only a great job could be accomplished with effort, and suffering, neither with primitive tools but the condition of “I have nothing more than this to do what I want to do; and what I want to do is going to exceed beyond the possibilities of my tools” is the condition that set our minds to start with the creative process to achieve what actually seems unachievable.

The camera in the iPhone is a crap, everybody knows that, but the challenge to do a great picture with it shots our imagination beyond the machine and its limitations, allowing the photographer to express, maybe easily, his/her talent.

It happened in the past when cameras were far away from the quality of our days and when digital photography was just science fiction. With very limited tools, photographers did a great job. Today to accomplish something similar we need some kind of limitation in our gear. The iPhone, just imposes that limitation and forces us to use our imagination to find the moment, the right composition and a plus: to use our imagination to combine several tools to edit our pics.

The only difference is that before the post processing happened in the dark room playing with time, mixture of chemicals, light, filters and so on. Now we have to do that using software. Anyway, at the end, the result is the same: improving our creativity and going always beyond limitations.

These are some pictures I took these last 6 months. I still need to get used to my iPhone camera.

Taking pictures with the iPhone force me to think different. I have to think about the limitations of its camera and how to show what I want to show. It’s interesting to have this kind of challenge, it’s a way to train myself in different scenarios where this crap of camera is all what I have :)

What do you think about mobile phone pictures?
The quality is not good? Do they force us to stimulate our imagination?