The App Wars Loves Gina Costa...

...and quite honestly, who wouldn't love her - with a brilliant and beautiful mind and gracious manner to match her exquisite beauty, it would be hard not to fall in love as we have here at The App Wars.  We can't even begin to explain our excitement to have the lovely Ms. Gina Costa curate and judge The App Wars competition.

Gina,  who earned her M.A. and PhD in Art History from the University of Chicago, is currently a lecturer on 20th Century art and photography and is a museum curator at the prestigious Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame.  And she will be extending her expertise to this competition and to all the beautiful entries we have received so far.

We spoke with Gina recently and here's an excerpt from that:

"I have always been very interested  in ways of seeing and thinking about photography and the making of images.  Since the birth of photography, we have used the camera to document our lives and record our memories.  Our contemporary life is saturated with and often defined by visual images.

I picked up an Olympus OM2 when I was about 18, and began documenting the rural Italian countryside around me.  I never stopped thinking about how we see the world around us, and how the camera's lens was both a filter and device to reveal what sometimes our eyes could not see.  As a trained art historian, my life is infused with images, as I constantly evolve new ways to read those images.

The advent of smartphones and their visual applications make the capturing and sharing of images spontaneous and instantaneous.  This tool is available to anyone, and resides in the pockets, purses, and book bags of millions of people around the world.  The process of capturing an image is suddenly a democratic process, redefining the terrain once occupied by "the artist-photographer".

Is "phoneology" a short-lived phenomenon, or a new way of thinking about what a photograph can be?  Is the traditional way of seeing and generating images part of the past, or has it been redefined?  Furthermore, is "phoneology" a valid part of the current discourse on contemporary photographic processes and strategies?  I believe it is.  In fact, the smartphone has expanded the discourses in meaningful ways, redefining what a photographic is or can be.

My current work with my Iphone (4s) seeks to explore this ever expanding discourse.  Each image I capture or make differs slightly from the other in the manner with which I utilize this technology, exploring the phone as a creative tool, a documenting device, a suggestion of narrative content, and a snapshot of time and place."

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From reading above, it's easy to see why Gina was a natural choice to curate this competition alongside Chip Simons and we can't wait to see her amazing selections to be included in the gallery showing at 3RDSPACE right here in San Diego, California.  And two talented photographers will be selected from that shortlist to win the Grand Prizes.  OH!  And don't forget our book publishing with BLURB! 

There is still time left to enter the War and submit your entries.   Go to The App Wars website for more information.  We want you!  We want your pictures!  Show us what you've got!

www.TheAppWars.com