The Best Camera Is The One That's With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis (Voices That Matter) [Paperback]

Chase Jarvis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321684788 | ISBN-13: 978-0321684783 | Edition: 1

A beacon of creativity with boundless energy, Chase Jarvis is well known as a visionary photographer, director, and social artist. In The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You, Chase reimagines, examines, and redefines the intersection of art and popular culture through images shot with his iPhone.

The pictures in the book, all taken with Chase’s iPhone, make up a visual notebook—a photographic journal—from the past year of his life. The book is full of visually-rich iPhone photos and peppered with inspiring anecdotes.

Two megapixels at a time, these images have been gathered and bound into a book that represents a stake in the ground. With it, Chase underscores the idea that an image can come from any camera, even a mobile phone. As Chase writes, “Inherently, we all know that an image isn’t measured by its resolution, dynamic range, or anything technical. It’s measured by the simple—sometimes profound, other times absurd or humorous or whimsical—effect that it can have upon us. If you can see it, it can move you.”

This book is geared to inspire everyone, regardless of their level of photography knowledge, that you can capture moments and share them with our friends, families, loved ones, or the world at the press of a button.

Readers of The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You will also enjoy the iPhone application Chase Jarvis created in conjunction with this book, appropriately named Best Camera. Best Camera has a unique set of filters and effects that can be applied at the touch of a button. Stack them. Mix them. Remix them. Best Camera also allows you to share directly to a host of social marketing sites via www.thebestcamera.com, a new online community that allows you to contribution to a living, breathing gallery of the best iPhone photography from around the globe.

Together, the book, app, and website, represent a first-of-its-kind ecosystem dedicated to encouraging creativity through picture taking with the camera that you already have. The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You—shoot!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chase Jarvis is well known as a visionary photographer, director, and social artist. He is widely recognized for re-imagining, examining, and redefining the intersection of art and popular culture through still and moving pictures. While commercial work for brands like Nike, Pepsi, Volvo, Reebok, Apple, and Red Bull have earned him recognition from the International Photography Awards, The Advertising Photographers of America, Prix de la Photographie Paris, and numerous other industry buzz centers, his recent push into personal work and fine art has rapidly gained the attention of curators and art critics, mainstream audiences, and celebrity circles worldwide. The online hub for Jarvis and his work is at http://www.chasejarvis.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (September 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321684788
• ISBN-13: 978-0321684783
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 6.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chase Jarvis is well known as a visionary photographer, director, and social artist. He is widely recognized for re-imagining, examining, and redefining the intersection of art and popular culture through still and moving pictures. While commercial work for brands like Nike, Pepsi, Volvo, Reebok, Apple, and Red Bull have earned him recognition from the International Photography Awards, The Advertising Photographers of America, Prix de la Photographie Paris, and numerous other industry buzz centers, his recent push into personal work and fine art has rapidly gained the attention of curators and art critics, mainstream audiences, and celebrity circles worldwide. The online hub for Jarvis and his work is at http://www.chasejarvis.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and inspiring September 30, 2009

By Craig Dickson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is a brilliant demonstration of what a talented and creative artist can do with the most basic tools. Chase Jarvis gives us 200+ photos taken with his iPhone and processed only using iPhone-based tools (no Photoshop!). In a way, this is comparable to the kinds of exercises that are sometimes done in other artistic fields, such as painting a picture using only two primary colors or writing a novel without the letter E (both of which have been done) -- a conscious device to spur experimentation to discover ways of working with or around the limitation one has chosen to adopt. But there is a crucial difference here: the use of the iPhone is itself a solution to the problem of not always having a camera in hand and ready to shoot whenever a photographic opportunity presents itself. And this is the point of the book: that there are always such opportunities around us, and that you don't necessarily need an expensive camera rig to catch them. Jarvis writes, "There are at least ten great pictures waiting to be taken within ten meters of where you are standing right now." This book is his proof.

Another inspiring aspect of the book is the way Jarvis sometimes takes advantage of the iPhone's limitations. It is not a high-resolution camera, nor are its optics any match for the better compact point-and-shoots on the market today (let alone any SLR), but Jarvis shows that this can be useful. Some of his pictures actually benefit from imperfect focus, digital noise, and limited dynamic range. In a few cases, I found solutions in his work to failed pictures that I have taken. I can see now that those pictures failed, at least in part, because the images were technically too precise. I played by the usual rules of photography (correct focus and exposure, etc.) when I should have broken them. "Louvers" on page 206 is one example of this. I shot a picture once very like this one, but it was too clear and too detailed; anyone looking at it would have said, "Okay, a picture of louver blinds, so what?" Jarvis' picture of the same subject is more mysterious, and therefore more interesting, due to blur and "incorrect" exposure. It becomes an abstract graphic design (and a good one) rather than just a shot of vertical blinds.

I think anyone interested in photography should buy this book. You may not "get" it right away, and it may be best not to rush through the whole thing in one sitting; but over time, I think it will help your mental and creative gears to turn in new ways, and the pictures really are great in their own low-tech way.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's All About The Idea And The Execution February 24, 2010

By M. Caruso

Format:Paperback

This book is great for one reason. It's simplicity is inspiring. Everyone takes pictures with their camera phones, but most people just brush them off as "not good enough." This book is proof-positive that "not good enough" can be "good enough to publish a book with." On top of this, add what other reviews have called The Best Camera "Trifecta" and you get an ecosystem that is both creative and technically genius. Great work, Chase.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring September 30, 2009

By David duChemin

Format:Paperback

Chase has done it again. The Best Camera is like visual proof that Jarvis' manifesto (the best camera is the one that's with you, and it doesn't have to be fancy) is right on the money. His images, and the way they've been curated into this mini-exhibit, are inspiring. It's not a how-to book, in fact it claims to be nothing more than what it is - a collection of images that re-examine the intersection of art and pop-culture. If you're looking for technique, move along. If you're looking for inspiration, this is a great reminder that the brand wars (Canon vs. Nikon) are irrelevant and that the camera really has so little to do with this art. I love this book and will pick it up time and time again just to stir the paint and poke the muse a little. Well done, Chase.