The Instagram account @phonartsaudi is uniting a growing community of photography enthusiasts who do like the pros do – but there’s a twist! As the name of the account implies, each amazing picture featured on the page was taken not by costly gear, but with a simple mobile phone.
The idea of “Phonart” started in 2013 and since then, the Instagram account that created a whole community of photographers who express their lifestyles using their mobile phones as a tool to grand other people an insight into their lifestyle and to show that the “person behind the tool is more important than the tool itself.”
Phonart aims, per its own remit, “to document life in its raw form: streets, buildings & human interactions. All what is around us from our daily lives has great value that we seem to have forgotten about, but with a simple device in our pockets we can transform simplicity into art.” The statement from the founders furthermore reads, “We believe that everyone is an artist and with our platform we shall help inspire those who want to become phonartists in their own way.”
Phonart was founded by Kholood Al Baker, Abdulsalam Al Amri, and Hythem Al Daham, with Al Daham arguably having the most public profile when it comes to their collective work. The Saudi-based graphic designer takes up every opportunity to devote himself to photography and he works in various genres, such as are portraiture, commercial work, and street photography and he also uses multitude of techniques and styles.
In 2014, so around one year after co-founding Phonart, Al Daham even gave a TEDx talk on the topic of “Challenging cultural norms through photography,” where he explained how he’d traveled to five different cities around Saudi Arabia to teach middle school kids the “passion and drive behind the power of photography.”
One of the collective’s most recent highlights was being included in “Spaces in Between,” the exhibition of the first National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the prestigious Architecture Biennale in Venice. Selected works from the account can even be found in the official catalogue, of which you can view the first 60+ pages here.
The @phonartsaudi account is constantly being updated so these images are some of the newest works online that were shot by people just like you and me. So next time you’ve got a beautiful snap on your phone, be sure to tag the account and maybe you’ll get featured in the official selection.
