Last Updated on 10/11/2017 by Chris Gampat
Screenshots and photos taken from the Kickstarter project
For today’s Kickstarter campaign that you might want to support, we have a project whose premise was born out of today’s most explored topics in photography: smartphone photography and “tubeography.” London-based street photographer and multimedia artist Dan Rodriguez aims to put the two together into a photo book called STRANGER.
According to Dan, the book will house his black and white photos of London Tube commuters, strictly taken with a smartphone. The goal of this intrepid project is to “explore the role of the smartphone as a tool to find beauty in an era of surveillance capitalism.” It’s not surprising Dan has taken on this project, as train commuters are among the most popular street photography subjects around the world. Likewise, the convenience and continued improvements of smartphone cameras have allowed everyone to take stealthy street photographs virtually anywhere.
In the campaign, Dan also touches on the back story of his project. In 2016, he created an underground movement he called Tubeography. As you probably guessed, it all began with a single smartphone snap of a traveler aboard the London Tube. From there, he embarked on a purist, black and white street photography project using his mobile phone and encouraged others to do the same in the subways of their own cities.
Interestingly, despite the digital scheme and origins of the “Tubeography” movement, Dan wants his STRANGER book to come in “a style that emulates a feel of analog street photography of the 70s.” In fact, he says, “the images will only exist within the pages of this book and the PDF ebook.” (with image extraction disabled, he says, but can’t we do screengrabs?)
The project will yield only 100 hard copies of STRANGER, each with “a special number and a secret code to prove its originality.” But the campaign also promises a bunch of other rewards for backers, including a signed print, a shirt, and a photography trip with Dan.
Curious about this project? Head to Dan Rodriguez’s Kickstarter campaign for more details about STRANGER and pledge your support.
All images by Dan Rodriguez via STRANGER on Kickstarter