Flipphoto

Starbucks, St. Albert
      
8:04 am, March 23, 2012
One of the fascinating social aspects of photography is the invisibility of the photographer. Look through a typical family's typical photo album from the 60s or 70s or 80s and you see birthday parties and camping trips and school concerts, weddings  and funerals, Christmas mornings and the rest of life's visual feast.

You feel the presence of the photographer, that person who has enough of the storytelling sensibility to stop time and gather everyone together for a photo. You see that person's work, and maybe you can still hear his or her version of, "Okay, everyone together. Move in a little closer. Not that silly face, come on! Okay, say, cheese!

 But you don't see that person. And it would be nice to see exactly what Mom or Dad or sister, brother, uncle, aunt, neighbour, friend looked like when the photo was taken.

   I'd like to develop that app, and call it flipphoto. The iPhone invites   such an experiment, with the function that allows the point of view to capture the opposite direction with the touch of the screen.

Could the photos be taken simultaneously? Date and location stamped? Shared? When viewing the pic, could an effect let you flip the pic over and see the other way? What might develop?


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