THE SMART VIEW - Reflections on mobile photography

"THE SMART VIEW- Reflections on mobile photography" is an independent magazine for mobile photography, at home in the genre of bookazines and fanzines. Small, handy, graphically well developed and printed in great quality, that is what we are about.

However, not just our graphic designers shape the magazine, you play a deciding role, too! Before an issue is released, we put out a call for submissions on our website and on Facebook, giving anyone and everyone the chance to submit their photos, texts or projects. The tag #thesmartview is already in use on Instagram and is a great way to draw our attention to your work. After the call for submission is closed, we pick out the best contributions and include them in the magazine. We make sure that we allocate each artist their own space. We therefore abstain from disruptive advertising, however we do give our partners the option to be listed separately from the content of the magazine. Every issue of THE SMART VIEW chooses one of your submission and spotlights it as the cover story. The artist chosen for the cover story is featured across the magazine cover, inside and out. An exceptional opportunity!

What makes our magazine special is the fact that we do not merely present content which has been shot with a mobile phone; we reflect upon the interaction with the mobile phone on a visual and literary level. We basically examine two positions. The “interior”, which is represented by the mobile photographer and the “exterior”, which encompasses texts and projects addressing mobile photography and culture from an external point of view. Our print issues are set to drop quarterly and due to our international contributors we are producing the magazine in English. Simultaneously, our Blog www.thesmartview.de will be showcasing the latest news regarding mobile photography continuously throughout the year. We therefore view our print issue magazines as a special collection of the essence of our blog. You can purchase THE SMART VIEW at selected museum shops, art bookstores, as well as on our website.

We are currently working hard on our first issue. We started a call for submissions in December of last year and received entries from all across the globe. From California to Australia, form Helsinki to Nigeria. We never thought that we would create such a response, being a young and unknown magazine. Thanks to the first round of submissions, we are now able to present you with a 120 page spread of international photographic and textual contributions. Yet, what good are brilliant ideas if you don’t have the financial means to implement them in adequate quality?

This is where you come in. You can help us turn our designs into a great project. Choose a reward and support our idea!

The magazine is aimed at those interested in art and photography, at creatives, mobile phone users, selfie-snappers, the Instagram-addicted and at all those who love holding and browsing a beautifully designed magazine.

We want to gain enough support through crowd funding to feed the printing press and let the ink flow. Our goal is to celebrate the first release of THE SMART VIEW at the photo-triennial together with you this year.

Mobile photography is taking us one step further toward the future. Our idea has encountered vivid interest worldwide, showing that a demand for such magazines exists. Our articles are comprised of contributions from all over the globe. We want to show that mobile photography does indeed hold artistic significance. Even though mobile photography is still viewed as mass-media by contemporary photography, we think that it is by all means worthy of note and definitely printable. Ultimately, photography is not about the technology used to create it, but about what it depicts and communicates. By supporting our project, you are directly helping us turn our words into actions. You are enabling us to release a magazine with a unique concept by June - an interactive magazine allowing you to actively take part in its development and one which deals with the present and future of photography.

Your money goes primarily toward covering the printing costs of our first issue. The 500 printed copies will be small, practical and glue bound. The fact that we pay a lot of attention to print and paper quality places the printing costs at approximately 4000 euros. Further costs include work by our translator Crosstext, editing, an ISBN-number, as well as a trademark register listing. Profits from the first issue are already allocated toward the release of the following print. You are literally kick-starting our idea and helping us bring THE SMART VIEW to life. We would not be able to carry the costs of this project without your support. Our team is full of passion and ambition. However, as often seen within the creative field, we are living on love alone at the moment - and love don’t pay the bills. We are hoping to establish the magazine within the coming years to such an extent that the profits cover our production costs. We are not out get rich. It is more important to us to meet people from all over the world and to inspire and delight them with many great issues of THE SMART VIEW than it is to wallow in money.