Androids
/November 7, 2015 through January 24, 2016
Ledger & Murray Galleries
Through the evolution of the mobile device, fine art photography has undergone a reformation. Whereas the digital camera shifted photography from a time-intensive chemical process to a more immediate electronic art form, the contemporary touchscreen mobile device has concentrated it further to be more efficient and accessible. Combined with numerous downloadable apps and pervading social media, anyone can use their mobile device to capture a digital image, manipulate its appearance, and share it with an international audience in a matter of seconds. Purists may scoff at this modern iteration of photography, but that does not discount its effects on the field or its acceptance by the art world.
With this exhibition, Polk Museum of Art hosts its very first exhibition solely dedicated to touchscreen photography while also celebrating the work of a local photographer.
Tony Guinn is perhaps best known as the proprietor of Tony’s Studio B in downtown Lakeland. Before that, however, he was known for his work as a photographer. This exhibition explores Guinn’s experiments with and gradual acceptance of the benefits of his HTC Android camera phone. Behind these images is an unsaid conflict between a curious artist and an undeniable high-tech phenomenon.