Street smarts

ARTISTS calling themselves "iPhoneographers" are continuing the great tradition of urban imagery.

iphone photos

MICHAEL Baranovic calls them "beautiful little moments".

He’ll be walking around in the city when, out of nowhere, a tableau of interesting characters and perfect light will fleetingly conspire in a striking, evocative way. Trying to capture such moments has been the raison d’être for street photographers going back to Henri Cartier-Bresson. But Baranovic is a photographer with a twist: his only camera is his iPhone.

These three shots are among the 20 featured in Baranovic’s first solo exhibition, New Melbourne, which opened yesterday at the Matt Irwin Gallery in the CBD. It’s an unusual way for him to show off his work; usually he just uploads his best shots – one or two every day – to his blog or to Instagram (a photo-sharing app that’s like a Twitter for “iPhoneographers”, as this emerging breed of photographic artists are known). He has several thousand followers on these online forums. “The instant feedback you get is quite addictive, and it’s interesting to see which shots get the best reactions,” he says. “Everyone wants that affirmation as an artist.”

So why does he use an iPhone for his photography? “First and foremost because it’s always with me,” he says. “Once I got used to the idea that I always had a camera in my pocket I started to look at the world a bit differently. I began looking for images everywhere I went.” Also, crucially, shooting with a phone enables you to remain unnoticed – the optimum modus operandi for street photography, and pretty difficult with a conventional camera. “Using the iPhone, you’re invisible,” Baranovic says. “You’re just another guy on the street corner, playing around with his mobile.”

The 30-year-old moved to Melbourne from Brisbane 18 months ago, and instantly felt more at home there (he puts that down to his family roots in Eastern Europe). The new exhibition documents not only the people of contemporary Melbourne, but his love affair with the place. And his obsession with those beautiful little moments. “I never get tired of capturing them,” he says. “It’s just thrilling.”