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Photographs by Joel Grey
Photography / Cell Phone Art
Slipcased Hardcover
5.125 x 6.375 inches
120 pages
103 four-color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-57687-485-1
Photographs by Joel Grey
Photography / Cell Phone Art
Slipcased Hardcover
5.125 x 6.375 inches
120 pages
103 four-color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-57687-485-1
“Whenever I see something I don’t quite understand—a shape, a color, an odd juxtaposition of the real and the abstract—nine times out of ten, it’s my reason for taking a photograph. For me, taking pictures is like asking questions.”
—Joel Grey
On an out-of-town trip in 2007, Joel Grey found himself in a small St. Lucie, Florida museum, filled with bizarre and eminently photographable objects. Feeling compelled, as he had with the images that became 2003’s Pictures I Had to Take (powerHouse Books), to capture these provocative tableaux, but without his trusty Nikon Nikkormat by his side, Grey did the next best thing he could: he reached for his cell phone.
Grey had never had any use for the camera function of his Nokia 133 before, and was skeptical about the capabilities of its tiny 1.3-megapixel lens. But to his surprise, the same familiar perspective he’d always had when taking photographs was still there. Even without a viewfinder, Grey could make the kinds of pictures he had always loved to make. The limitations of the format—the inability to control aperture, focus, and many of the other variables of traditional photography besides framing—proved a thrilling new challenge, which Grey likens to “collaborating with a power larger than yourself.” Grey spent the next eight months shooting with his phone, and the results became 1.3: Images from My Phone, a collection of slices cut from diverse visual worlds: street art and still life; advertising and architecture; shadows and reflections; natural beauty and urban grit.
Joel Grey is best known for his extensive work in theater and film. A Tony and Academy Award-winning actor, he is also the author of Pictures I Had to Take (powerHouse Books, 2003) and Looking Hard at Unexamined Things (Steidl, 2006). Grey’s work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Public Library. He lives and works in New York City. For more information on his work, please visit www.joelgreyphotographer.com
