Creative iPhoneographer Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann
Creative iPhoneographer Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann
Hello Sascha, could you tell us a little about how you got started with creative iPhone photography and art?
I subscribed to your newsletter a while ago and so I followed your creative path with iPhone photography and art. I really liked what you were (are) doing and when you offered the Christmas Card Workshop last year I took the class and was already fascinated what one can do with an iPhone. So I took your 3 following workshops, once I participated I couldn't stop. ;)
How do you feel when you're making iPhoneography images?
Creative, playful, curious, exploring
What are you thinking about most in your creative life these days?
How I can combine my three creative expressions: Taking photos with my iPhone and adapting them with different apps, dancing Flamenco, and writing short stories/novels.
Are there any colours or textures that you keep returning to, in your images?
No, not really, I have phases when I prefer to work with one subject a lot:
During the workshop Getting started with iPhoneography it was our cat:
iPhoneography. Black Cat. By Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann.
During the workshop Creative iPhoneography I was taking lots of urban photos:
iPhoneography. Zürich: New York Food. By Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann.
iPhoneography. Flamenco. By Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann.
For the Alumni Workshop my project was about dancing (Flamenco), that's why dancers kept returning, but also the Spanish word „bailar“ (to dance). This project is not finished, so this theme will continue to show up in my images.
Which are your favourite apps for expressing yourself creatively?
Oh, there are so many, and it depends on the picture I want to create. For the last weeks: Blender, Repix, TouchRetouch and PhotoInWord.
You write, you dance and you create iPhoneography. Do you feel like these different areas cross-pollinate creatively?
There is a cross pollination effect between my different forms of creativity. I get ideas for pictures after reading what I just wrote for example. Like a scene I wrote and I think about capture it with my iPhone/with iPhoneography, it doesn't have to show the "real scene", it's most of the times just the emotions or the senses of the scene I want to capture in a picture.
And then there's Flamenco which took its place as a theme in my iPhoneography-work and made me start to use apps where I could double a person, the repetition of dancing is showing up in the pictures.
I didn't find a combination the other way around, I mean from my iPhoneography to my writing or dancing, but I guess there is one, I just don't get it yet...
What do you find to be the greatest challenges and rewards of being an iPhoneographer?
Challenge: Not to overdo an image with an app or different apps, when I started out I was so fascinated by the possibilities I was sometimes doing to much and I didn't like the image anymore. So during the Alumni workshop I „stepped back“ and sometimes left an image just the way it was – no apps at all.
iPhoneography. Gorilla. By Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann.
Rewards: With a small tool like the iPhone I can express my creativity anytime, because I have it with me all the time (more or less) and also if a photo I took wasn't that great, I still can use it most of the time to process it through apps. Actually the reverse of the challenging part. :)
I finally can express myself visually! I always liked visual art, but didn't feel comfortable (being well enough) drawing or painting. With iPhoneography I found a tool I like to handle, to be creative with and express myself visually besides my writing and dancing.
What is your creative advice to others who are inspired but don't know where to start?
If you have the possibility, take a workshop with Kate! If not, just walk around with curiosity and you may see things you haven't noticed before, take a picture of those subjects. Try to cultivate your eyes. If you do this for a week, you will have a few photos you can use in apps. I would recommend to work with one app after the other, so you don't get overwhelmed. Just play around with one and when you get used to it, start with another.
iPhoneography. Lioness. By Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann.
The same approach I use for writing. Beeing curious, paying attention to small stuff and starting with small things. Don't try to write a novel, if you haven't written fiction before, start with a short story. And to cultivate your writing, read a lot, find out, why you like a book, maybe it's of the rhythm of the language, maybe it's just the story itself or something else.
iPhoneography. Cat on film. By Sascha-Irena Wilkesmann.
Last, but not least, carry a notebook with you everywhere you go. (I also keep one beside my bed becauase late night ideas are sometimes the best!) If something comes to your mind, you can write it down. Or if you hear a conversation you find interesting, you can write it down. Every now and again I got inspired by a conversation to write a scene. Sometimes it would also fit into a story.
Thank you so very much Sascha, for your thoughtful and inspiring thoughts around your creative life!