This week marks 15 years since the iPhone first went on sale and ushered in a new era: the age of the smartphone.
It’s hard to imagine today how different mobile access was before that evening of June 29, 2007. The internet in your pocket didn’t look like, well, the internet. Social media – and the ability for everyone to respond globally to everything – was in its infancy. And while older phones certainly had cameras, the quality – and the potential for instant editing and filtering and sharing that exists today – wasn’t there yet.
The modern smartphone has changed photography. To capture a snapshot of that change, we asked more than a dozen Associated Press photographers across the world who use iPhones – some of the most talented journalists in the business – to capture an image on their phone and submit it.
Here is what they came up with. But first: Some words from Enric Martí, the AP deputy director of photography who oversaw the project – and who had his doubts about it at the outset.
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