Think your mobile pics are good? Prove it. (Photo: Chase Jarvis)
Think your mobile pics are good? Prove it. (Photo: Chase Jarvis)

If a world famous photographer saw the photos on your phone, what would he say?

Now’s your chance to find out.

I’ll be interviewing renowned Seattle-based photographer Chase Jarvis next Thursday, Sept. 12, at the GeekWire Summit. Apart from picking his brain about the future of creativity and education — Jarvis is a self-taught all-media all-star whose startup, creativeLIVE, has broadcast more than 250 courses to more than 1 million students around the world — I’ll ask Jarvis to give a thoughtful critique of several mobile photos submitted by GeekWire readers.

What does Jarvis know about mobile photography? You could say he wrote the book on it. “The Best Camera is the One That’s With You,” published in 2010, shows a collection of Jarvis’s iPhone photos so casual you’d think you could’ve taken them yourself.

Which is kind of the point.

“There are at least ten great pictures waiting to be taken within ten meters of where you are standing right now,” reads a page opposite a bunch of wheat grass, and next to a close-up of a yellow grill.

“The best camera is the one that’s with you” is also a mantra of the mobile photography generation, perhaps one of the most influential quotes by a smartphone-era photographer. Jarvis has some serious cred in the space. Wired Magazine named his early photo filter app Best Camera (did I mention he was also an entrepreneur?) one of its 20 favorite iPhone apps of 2009, along with Instapaper and Words With Friends.

Chase Jarvis
Chase Jarvis

So. Back to your pics.

I’m looking for all kinds, really. Nothing’s too simple or complex. Mobile photography is a dressed-down kind of art. Maybe you took an interesting picture of your cat. Or a coffee cup. Or a wall somewhere. The key word, really, is interesting. As for subject, anything goes.

I’ll select a handful of your pics for the critique and display them anonymously. Jarvis won’t see them before we put them on a screen onstage at the Summit. The goal won’t be to shock him with the pics, but we don’t want to bore him, either. We want to give him something to talk about, and we want to learn a thing or two about mobile photography in the process.

And hey — maybe you’ll come out of it with bragging rights.

Email your submissions to contest@geekwire.com by Monday, Sept. 9. If you have a high-res file, feel free to send a Dropbox link or something equally accessible. Apart from a chance to have your picture critiqued by Jarvis, selected pictures will be seen by hundreds of attendees at the event.

"The Best Camera is the One That's With You" was Chase Jarvis' first book. Seattle 100, a book of portraits of notable Seattleites, was his second. (Photo: Mónica Guzmán)
“The Best Camera is the One That’s With You” was Chase Jarvis’ first book. Seattle 100, a book of portraits of notable Seattleites, was his second. (Photo: Mónica Guzmán)

For a look at non-mobile photos that Jarvis calls inspirations, check out this page on his blog. For a preview of what we’ll be talking about at the GeekWire Summit next Thursday, check out his recent appearance on the GeekWire Radio podcast.

Editor’s Note: Tickets for next week’s GeekWire Summit are available here.

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