Rad A. Drew Photography: Featured Photographer: Turkish iPhone Artist, Mehmet Omur

Continental Divide at Dawn

Continental Divide at Dawn
Continental Divide at Dawn

Monday, September 3, 2018

Featured Photographer: Turkish iPhone Artist, Mehmet Omur

Please join me in acknowledging my friend and iPhone Photographer, Mehmet Omur.

Mehmet and I met in the south of France in 2016 when I led a photography workshop there. He and his wife, Emel, were welcome participants on this workshop, and Mehmet was very excited about mobile photography and eager to explore as many facets of it as he could.

© Sukru Mehmet Omur
On many mornings while in France, Mehmet and I walked the fields surrounding the farmhouse where we stayed while fellow participants chose to sleep in. On these mornings, we photographed the beautiful countryside in the fog and morning light, and got to know each other.

Mehmet recently wrote me,

Today, I am very proud to announce to you the publication of my brand new book about our favourite subject, mobile photography. This is my new book called Shoot, Edit, Share; iPhone Photography. It’s in Turkish and sold in Turkey. I can say that your workshop in Larnagol-Toulouse France two years ago helped me so much to achieve this difficult task. But it was also my New Year's resolution for Joanne Carter’s TheAppWhisperer.

So I have to thank you first for this workshop where I learned a lot.

As you know I sold all my full frame DSLR cameras and decided to go my photographic way with my iPhone. Why iPhone and not another smartphone?

iPhone has all new technologies on it and I don’t worry about the technical settings before shooting, and that helps me to concentrate on my framing, color distribution, contrast, lighting, and the “feeling” of the environment. The decisive moment of Henry Cartier-Bresson is very important to me. All that the iPhone offers, is so good for an advanced amateur photographer like me.


Here is the preface of my book:

"Use your mobile phone camera, have fun; Enhance your photography, share your artefacts with Instagram and Facebook. Smart phones have changed the rules of the game in the world of photography with their small size, presence at all times, and quality of the lens.

They are quick and simple to work with, take beautiful photos, can move photos to other dimensions through applications, and we can access hundreds of thousands of them through social networks like Facebook, Flickr, Instagram and Tumblr. This book can help you use your mobile camera more efficiently and take the best pictures of your life with it.

If there are those who want to go further, they will also open the doors of “mobile art” with their applications. The magic is based on the iPhone camera, but the features it deals with are common to all mobile phones. For this reason, those who do not have an iPhone phone can also benefit from this book.”

Beyond the quality and advanced technology of the iPhone camera it allows me to create mobile art with the help of many applications that I can find on the Apple store. I can share them on my social media accounts. Now I moderate with my mobile artists friends many Facebook mobile artistry and iPhone photography groups. I also organize iPhone photography and mobile artistry workshops in İstanbul and in Paris. 


Soon we will with Andrea Bigiarini, founder of NEM NewEraMuseum, for an exhibition during the Paris-Photo weekend this November. It’s on a great theme, “Forced Captivity.”

Here is the link (http://neweramuseum.org/forced-captivity-exhibition-paris/) where you can learn more about the Forced Captivity Exhibit in Paris. 





Sukru Mehmet Omur (Turkey)
Sukru Mehmet Omur is an Ear, Nose, Throat surgeon (ENT), who is now working as a full time mobile photographer and artist. He is also a writer focusing on photography and wine. Originally from Turkey, he and his wife, Emel, now reside in Paris. He graduated from CE3P images school in Paris and his mobile works as an artist have been exhibited in Paris, Indianapolis, Florence, and Istanbul. Mehmet is managing 4 mobile artistry groups, 4 photography groups and 2 photography pages in Facebook and his book, Shoot, Edit, Share: iPhone Photography, recently was published in 2018.





Here is the cover of Mehmet's recently published book, which is in the Turkish language and sold in Turkey.


Mehmet was gracious enough to answer some questions about his writing, teaching and photography.

RAD: You mention photographer Henry Cartier Bresson. How has he influenced your work? Are there other photographers who influence and inspire you?

Mehmet: I believe every photographer who is interested in history of photography and photographic philosophy, knows and admires him like me. He is the “eye of the century.” His approach to “birth of the moment” and his “decisive moment” impressed me. Sure I am influenced by him.

Here are some others who influence me:

Robert Capa, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz, Sebastiao Salgado, Man Ray, Din McCullin, Diane Arbus, and James Nachtwey.


RAD: I see from your images on social media sites that you create many abstracts. What do you find satisfying about creating abstract work?

Mehmet: I Love creating abstract works because I love forms. Abstracts give me much more freedom. They allow me to break the rules. The shapes, lines, colors are an excellent way for imagination to create.


© Abstract, Sukru Mehmet Omur


RAD: What are the apps you use most? Among them do you have a favorite?

Mehmet: These are some of my most frequently used apps:
  1. Imaengine for lines and shapes
  2. iColorama for styles, effects (icolorama is my favorite!)
  3. Glaze for painting filters
  4. Hipstamatic as a camera
  5. Always SnapSeed
  6. And sometimes Remix, Tangent, Matter and Fragment
© Sukru Mehmet Omur

RAD: List some of what readers will learn from your book. What are some of the topics you address?

Mehmet: They can learn how to use their iPhone's basic buttons and sliders. Basic photography rules and some essential photographic subjects.

The essentiel topics; iPhone camera, Basic rules of photography and travel photography, portrait photography, architecture, night and street moments, double exposure, etc.


© Sukru Mehmet Omur

RAD: I see that your image of the sheep in France took first place in the Nature category in the prestigious 2018 IPPAWARDS competition. Can you share what this image and the award mean to you?

© Sukru Mehmet Omur (Turkey)
First Place, Nature category
2018 IPPAWARDS

Mehmet: IPPA are the most important awards for the iPhone photography field. I am proud to get the first place with that sheep image. Maybe you remember that morning in Larnagol-Toulouse. We were together early in the morning We went for a walk at dawn to the foggy fields. The place was very quite and looked like heaven. Suddenly I saw a sheep contemplating others. The passage was divine. I took many pictures and chose one.

RAD: I do remember that morning and others when we were the only early risers! 

To view more of Mehmet's work, visit the following sites: