Mobile phone photos win at Pictures of the Year International competition

Damon Winter / New York Times, courtesy POYI

Will Sullivan, 2010-2011 Fellow

New York Times photographer, Damon Winter’s, “A Grunt’s Life” photojournalism work won a third place in the Pictures of the Year International competition this week. What’s unique about this is the photos were shot using an iPhone 4 and a simple app call Hisptamatic that adds effects to photos.

Winter talked about why he used the mobile phone for photojournalism earlier in the year:

“Composing with the iPhone is more casual and less deliberate,” Mr. Winter said. “And the soldiers often take photos of each other with their phones, so they were more comfortable than if I had my regular camera.”

Mr. Winter even found himself taking a few iPhone pictures during firefights while he was shooting video with his single-lens reflex (a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, as long as we’re on the subject). The Hipstamatic app forced him to wait about 10 seconds between photos, so each one had to count.

Winter isn’t the only New York Times staffer using mobile reporting tools, Ann Derry, the New York Times Editorial Director for Video and Television says the iPhone 4 is a ‘game changer’ used by reporters on the staff.

For more information about Hipstamatic and other photo editing apps for mobile reporting, check out the RJI mobile journalism gear and app guide.

[Disclosure: The POYi contest is partially organized and funded by the University of Missouri and the Reynolds Journalism Institute, where I have my fellowship]