Mobile Photography Awards showcase stunning smartphone art

The trolls here seem to miss the point that many of these images would not exist if the photographer had failed to choose the correct tool. These images aren't "prisoners" of the tech - in large part they wouldn't exist without the tech.

Fantastic images and congrats to the winners. I must admit to using my iPhone camera more often than any of my other cameras. I'm still amazed at the capabilities of my handheld computer/camera/phone. It is nice to see respected entities such as DPReview and professional photographers like Dewitt Jones embrace mobile photography. I used to say the convergence of photography tools is coming, but it is already here.

If someone told me one year ago I should shoot with a smart phone i would have laughed at him…Last year i tried in Venice to shoot just for fun with my smart phone….After one day I was so fascinated that I left all my big cameras at the hotel, i have had a lot of Cameras the last 30 years…Since then i use my smart phone 95 percent of my Photography..It is easy to carry, you will not recognized as a Photographer you are connected to the World and it's fun… Next week i go back to India and i will use only my Smart phone….To win in two categories motivates me even more...This set is taken with my Galaxy S3 http://500px.com/niklens/sets/mobile_photography

We must remember - that the quality of your images is not created by a camera, it is the result of passion, experience, technique and a perfect synergy between the creative mind, the eye and the heart - today photographers get so caught up in the technology they forget the fundamentals and simplicity that is the essence of a powerful image. Instead of talking about what good photography should be, let your photographs do the talking, not the size and value of your equipment.

We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium.- Ansel Adams

OK I just have to chime in, as a husband and wife professional photographers team/iPhone addicts - I have to laugh at the ridiculous comments made by these self proclaimed professionals. They get so caught up in their egos and equipment. My lens is longer than yours -I have more megapixels than you- oh please give me a break! Lets try to remember all professionals were once amateurs and not one of them started out shooting with high-end expensive equipment, I'm also pretty sure that the first car they ever drove wasn't a Ferrari! I may be a bit biased, but my husband shoots his commercial work with a 4X5 Linhof camera with a Phase One digital back and he shoots all of his personal work with his iPhone 5-and I think the quality, lighting and POV of all of his work is outstanding.
http://FernandoAriasPhotography.com/
What exactly are you trying to say (Mr Professional Photographer with the expensive equipment) because this husband and wife Professional Photography team isn't buying it.

I'm waiting, with baited breath for the king of photography dholl to tell all mobile photographers (yes, i said it) what they should be doing...well? Please don't disappoint. Please tell us how to create our art. You're ridiculous and predictable in your comments. Get a life. Get some friends.

Speechless.... I like it !!!!

But I would like to know which gear was used in every image..., that information is not available with the files.

Nicely lit, nicely composed photos that were quite clearly taken on rubbish gear. People have been trumpeting this concept since the "it's possible to take great pictures with a pinhole camera" days. Does it make decent gear redundant? Not a bit of it.

an interessting theme! nothing for purists, but a new and interessting way to show your expressions. don´t think it must be comparable to SLR photography !
i´m loving it !

This should have been painting/photo-editing award and not photography. It's obvious that you can use even the crappiest 10$ camera to take self-portrait or any lousy subject then heavily post-process it to make it look good.

Great comments and discussion. The Mobile Photography Awards are for photos shot and processed on...mobile phones and devices. Just like a Street Photography Awards would be for...street photos. Nothing wrong with categories and sub-genres of the medium. We at the MPA are thrilled at the art representing our Awards this year. Whether the images won in the VisualFX category or the Landscape category. It's all good. It's all subjective. Whiners will whine that the camera isn't as good as a DSLR. You're right. And your point is...?

Interesting sampling, love the winter and travel ones, esp the Smoker.
Reading the comments saddens me however.
So much bile vented simply because a phone was used.
I see the same people constantly making snarky comments about "real cameras" and all.
I am sure were these folks painters in the 19th century they would have decried photography with just as much vehemence!

There should be different categories for photographers and photoshop manipulators.
Being able to produce pictures in photoshop doesn't mean you can compose a photo..

Some excellent Pictures, SLR snobbery babies aside, Photography in 'any format' can produce images worth looking at. I take my camera phone everywhere as i am sure most photographers do, when compacts and SLRs aren't convenient. I suppose it's called 'having a life', for all the wingers who make out they take their 'big' camera everywhere.
There are times some phone or compact features would be an attribute in an SLR, even to use as inspiration for incamera viewing.

I may not be an exceptional photographer myself, but I know what I like. And what I see here are just crappy dime-a-dozen instagram type shots, except one.

That exception for me is "Smoker" by Alfred Pleyer won for Travel". It has atmosphere and detail.

The rest, blegh.

I'm looking forward to the day when Nikon release firmware for my D700 that would allow me to both make and receive telephone calls. How effing cool would that look on a packed 17:24 from Waterloo eh?

And the winners of Dodge and Burns and Clones and Filter categories goes to.... Mr. and Ms. Photo Editor

And the haters are out once more. Very amusing to read.

It was always a quote, that it's not the camera but the artist who takes and makes the picture.

No one cares if those images are made with materials from smartphone or D800.

If you want to call them "smartphone art", they must be something ONLY possible with smartphone.

Current smartphone blah blah is nothing but media hype.

The whole floor in the winner pic is photoshopped, including the figure's reflexion. It's sad to see that more and more photo contests turn into photoshop skill contests rather than focus on photography skills.

Things that smart phones will not be good at anytime soon:

-low light
-zoom
-bokeh
-large prints

Purely my opinion:

Two of these, the flower category and the zebra on the beach both look incredibly "fake" to me. How powerful was the off camera light needed to get that exposure on the zebra? It really looks like a composite image to me (after looking again, am I just supposed to accept that it is 2 shots edited?) and, if it isn't, is lugging around a massive light setup really "mobile" photography anymore? I could care less what sensor you capture something with but call it what it is.

The flower shot is also so heavily processed that it has a great surreal look but has lost, for me, any and all sense of being alive.

I have a number of shots from my phone which I consider up there with the best I have taken and appreciate the platform for its availability and respectable quality.

The portraits, girl in graveyard, b&w category and the kid with the water wings are all really really nice and show that a great scene is great no matter the gear.

These fantastic images were not taken with a phone.

They were taken with a camera.

Symantics perhaps but true nontheless.

Perhaps this small point will help those struggling to "get it".

From an artistic point of view, the photographies are really great.

But is that really also true from a technical point of view? Would they not have been much better if taken with a conventional camera?

It's great photography, end of story. Since when is art defined by the device that was used. Hello, it's 2013! Today's smart phones have amazing cameras. It's funny how people still try to make it sound like it was something really groundbreaking that great quality photos can be taken with today's phones.

Finally a place where people don't blast an image because it wasn't taken with the most expensive camera body!

I was impressed with all of the photos. A nice touch would have been to include the phone each was taken with. I would like to know top-performing phone cameras that are not an iPhone. Nothing against an iPhone but it is synonymous with great photos. There has to be others.

Really fantastic stuff