iPhone photography: Revolution or passing phase?

Edgar Alan Poe hailed photography as "the most important and perhaps the most extraordinary triumph of modern science." It has diverse personal, business and artistic roles in our culture, but throughout there have been barriers to visual experimentation such as processing delays. Photography has travelled through many eras: the box brownie, Polaroid, the 1 hour photo and digital processing. All of these have made photography inclusive, portable, inexpensive and no longer the reserve of professionals. Are we now entering a completely revolutionary phase?

The iphone has been pivotal in escalating the photographic journey. There has been a technological convergence of phones, computers and the internet, leading to infinite real time distribution and retouching of photographs through social networking and email and Photoshop. Photographs have become less of a precious moment in time but a visual dialogue of our daily trivia pimped up with many purpose built apps. "iphoneography" has become a growing social movement which has blurred photographic conventions. Will smartphones will see the expiry of point and shoot cameras? Only time will tell.