Cellular Obscura

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cellularobscura.blogspot.com

In the mid-1990s, Shawn Rocco's job as a photojournalist for the News & Observer newspaper changed. Video was added to his duties and he often found himself on deadline, tangled in wire, with two different mediums demanding his attention. The pictures and the video were less than satisfying and, as an artist, he felt empty.

Enter a flip phone circa 1996. The camera embedded in that phone turned out to be Rocco’s saving grace. He used that camera to exercise his artistic muscle. Thousands of images later, an exhibition of Rocco’s cell phone photography is on view at the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill through April 7th. He joins host Frank Stasio to discuss the artistic possibilities of cell phone technology.