Through the Camera Phone's Lens

Just seven or eight years ago a digital camera was a major purchase. If you wanted to make the move from film you were likely shelling out a few hundred dollars for the privilege of lugging around something the size of a double quarter-pounder with cheese.

Today, virtually everyone carries a digital camera around with them stuffed into a front pocket or slung over their shoulder in a purse. Doctors, bartenders, janitors and office assistants all grab their cameras before running out the door, not to channel Ansel Adams, but rather because our cameras are also our phones.

Cell phone cameras are revolutionizing the way we think about photography. They are overwhelmingly accessible. They are cheap and easy to use. They are the visual equivalent of shorthand. And if you believe Doug Heslep, they are a perfectly viable means of creating meaningful artistic pictures.

Photo by SARAH FELDBERG

The ACT Gallery in downtown Fort Myers hosts openings the first Friday of every month during which visitors can meet and talk with the artist being exhibited.

The Arts for ACT Gallery in downtown Fort Myers, which is owned and operated as a non-profit benefiting Abuse Counseling and Treatment Inc., is currently hosting Helsep’s latest exhibit, a collection of photos taken using the “best yet lousiest camera I have ever owned,” a cell phone camera.

At first glance it is hard to comprehend that the pictures hung on the gallery’s exposed brick walls are taken with a shaky, flimsy cell phone. When I try to take a snapshot with my LG flip phone I’m often left with an image masked in shadows or dizzied in blur, and that’s when I manage to get the intended subject into the frame.

Heslep’s photos, on the other hand, are crisp, colorful and surprisingly sleek. They are, despite my skepticism, passable as art.

In “La Fleur de Feu,” we see a blooming rose, shot from directly above. It’s petals splay out in high contrast yellows, oranges and reds against a flame red background, clearly the work of some computer based editing. A small version of the image is printed in clean focus at the middle of the canvas (most of Heslep’s photos are giclees on canvas) and bordered by a small box. Serving as a background is a larger out of focus copy of the original picture.

Photo by SARAH FELDBERG

Three images crafted from photographs taken using a cell phone camera. From left to right: "Koi," "Earth Maiden" and "Crescendo."

This format shows up again and again on Heslep’s canvases. Further down the wall an American flag waves in small and large formats, a bottle of chardonnay, a solitary palm tree in contrasting color and black and white. Each picture carries its title printed onto the canvas. And they are all attractive, simple and for my taste, a little too easy. Although I’m sure that these pictures will make a lovely addition to some older couples’ kitchen wall, they are too safe – too close to something that might be produced for mass-consumption.

But taking a closer look around the gallery’s main exhibition room, I’m drawn to a few of Heslep’s riskier photos that break out of the previous mould. These are larger, striking and convey more emotion and thought than a silhouetted wine bottle ever could.

“Red Tomato Still Life #1” is a bold, beautifully shot example. Almost bitingly stark, a single bowl with two blood red tomatoes sits on a counter or table. Only the bowl and fruit are in focus, the counter fading into a pixilated gray mass while the background disappears into black. Despite containing only a couple of tomatoes, the picture conveys a certain intensity and violence, almost as if a butcher’s knife had been hastily removed from the camera’s view.

Photo by SARAH FELDBERG

"A Master of Seduction" by Doug Heslep.

Next to this photo, “A Master of Seduction” takes an even bolder leap in cell phone photography. This photo shows a woman, nude, posed in what appears to be an open window. Her body faces us full on, light catching on the blond hair that falls across her face and on her exposed breasts. Shadows hide her hips and waist. It is a gritty picture that plays on the line between voyeurism and exhibitionism, and in its unashamed sexuality it is a shockingly powerful work of cell phone art.

A few other pictures catch my eye as I wander around the gallery, a canvas featuring a whimsical nude with heavy Photoshop layering called “Earth Maiden,” a trio of brightly-colored fish titled “Koi.” Browsing through Heslep’s canvases, it’s clear that I’ve underestimated that tiny camera flopping around in my purse. In Heslep’s hands it creates some wonderful things, in mine I’ll start with getting the framing right.

Want to go? Arts for ACT Gallery, 2265 First St., Fort Myers. 239.337.5050. www.artsforactgallery.com

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