NEW APPLE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN IS 100% IPHONE USER GENERATED

Last night my lady and I went to see the film Trainwreck. Honestly, a positively fun movie, but that's not why I'm writing this post. Over time, more than just trailers have been added to the pre-show entertainment of a film. It's not totally uncommon to see a handful of ads from companies like Coke or Lexus just before the trails are presented.

The usual ads appeared and I was somewhat tempted to not pay attention, but then a very short, yet simply incredible ad appeared from Apple. It was maybe 15 seconds long, and nothing more than a video clip shot on the new iPhone 6 and including the name of the user who shot it. Brilliant! It's probably one of the most inspiring pieces of advertising I've seen in a very long time. Not only that, they looked amazing on the big screen.


Photographers and filmmakers are constantly hung up on the gear. It seems they're always wanting the latest and the greatest. That real work can't be created with anything less "pro" level gear. There are always artists out there that are proving this notion incorrect. These series of ads do just that.

FOREVER 21 WILL TRANSFORM ANY INSTAGRAM PHOTO WITH SPOOLS OF THREAD

Want to see yourself in thread? This is some of the most imaginative marketing I've seen in a long time. The prototype company Breakfast has created an insanely complex billboard made up of spools of colored thread. 6,400 spools, to be exact, with 36 different colors that can mechanically create any Instagram image that is tagged appropriately with the hashtag #F21ThreadScreen. And clothing company, Forever 21, will display your image on their billboard for the world to see for free! Yes, you heard me right. You can have your image displayed in 60 x 60 pixels for the world's eyes. That's nearly 5 bit glory.



This nifty bit of engineering came from the creative minds at Breakfast, a Brooklyn based company, that has become known for their innovative use of hardware to build installation pieces for Instagram.  So what is this contraption? It's 2,000 pounds of mechanical genius that's made up of 6,400 spools of colored thread and 200,000 parts. There's over 6 miles of total thread and when you take into account soldering joints and such, it takes that parts count up to over 600,000. To say that this thing is complex is really an understatement. Just look at the breakdown of a sliver of the machine in the image below.

If you want to see your Instagram images built on the Forever 21 Thread Screen live, simply mark your image with the hashtag #F21ThreadScreen and hop on over to the official live Thread Screen page to watch it happen. But hurry, this campaign will only last from now until July 28th.

To Retouch Or Not To Retouch - Is Photoshop Really The Problem?

To retouch or not to retouch? That is the question. It seems this particular subject is one that apparently gets under the skin of both industry and non-industry folks. It strikes quite the raw nerve with people some times. Many times I've found myself caught up in the debate, and every time I ask myself, "Why the hell do I care so much?". It seems this has become a heavy moral question for so many.

Like most artists, I think I strive to achieve the best quality work I can produce, and that usually comes with acquiring some kind of new knowledge to increase my skill set. I'm sure this isn't unusual for any field. It's just the nature of progress, right? With great power comes great responsibility...or so they say. Fashion companies, cosmetic companies, even automobile companies display images of the happy smiling, "perfect" people . And we can't help but want to be them, right? We're bombarded with these ads everyday. Almost all the time. Some say we've developed an unhealthy sense of beauty because of all this. Some would even say that it's become a "plague". But is this true? 

We act as if this "plague" is something new to our culture in our modern world. That the advent of Photoshop, amazing though it is, is the root of this new evil. At least that's what I hear from articles I've read and posts I've seen on Facebook and Google+. This "plague" isn't new. If you think think that artists during the Renaissance period didn't alter their portraits of their benefactors, you're out of your mind. The difference between then and now, of course, is that we have a huge marketing machine driving the current view. But the point is, this is a human condition - not a condition derived from a piece of software. I watched a TED Talk to covered some interesting points related to this.

One company has taken this to heart and decided to get ride of it all together. American Eagle is keeping it honest with their #AerieREAL campaign which contains no airbrushing and eschews the supermodel image. Aerie's Chief Merchandising Officer Jennifer Foyle said last year, "We want to empower young women to be confident in themselves and their bodies." That's fantastic! Aerie's Instagram feed lives up to this standard. They are featuring women of all body shapes. Even better because beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Interestingly enough, their sales have increased about ten percent since this campaign began.

Our view of beauty, in terms of shape and size, has fluctuated over time, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. But I really don't think Photoshop is the problem. Actually, I'm positive Photoshop isn't the problem. Photoshop is nothing more than a tool. It's another paint brush in the painter's arsenal. The problem honestly resides in the individuals that are using this tool. Images will always need some kind of retouching. That's the truth. The question is to what extent? We get so caught up in the hype that were can't actually see what's going on or what the real problem happens to be.

Is there As my good friend and fellow photographer, Katie, loves to say, "We need to be kinder to ourselves and to each other." Spot on. So, is there a fix for this debacle? Probably not. But, before you decide to bash the use of Photoshop, think about the makeup you put on. Think about the choices in your clothing? More importantly, think about your decisions for using all of them? Are you not doing the same kind of thing? 

So, put that in your pipe and smoke it.