This is the first post in a series in which I put a spotlight on an iPad app that I find inspiring, interesting, beautiful or just plain useful.
When I was a young child, I spent countless hours browsing our family’s extensive collection of National Geographic Magazine. At the time, my english skills were non-existent or severely limited, so my focus was on viewing the awe inspiring photography that captured my imagination.
Fast-forward to the year 2011 where, in the name of profit centers, editorial photography and the craft of photojournalism have been slashed down to the absolute minimum by magazine and newspaper editors alike. More than ever, profit and sensationalism takes priority over the quality of imagery or the reporting.
Thankfully, the staff at The Guardian still believes in the power of a well captured photojournalistic image and they have teamed up with Canon and National Geographic to produce “The Guardian Eyewitness“. Eyewitness is an iPad app that brings you up to 100 photographs at a time. Photographs produced by some of the best photojournalists of our time.
Picture of The Guardian Eyewitness iPad app in action.
The app presents these images as photo spreads one image at a time. Each photo comes with a caption and a Pro Tip that provides a technical detail about how the image was captured. Swiping left and right allows for easy navigation between images. With a simple touch gesture, all user interface elements fade away. All that the viewer is left with is the photograph itself. The app also allows for a little bit of pinch zooming into the image. One can mark it as a favorite for easy access later on or share it via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. That is all there is to the app. Simple, beautiful, well done.
You can download The Guardian Eyewitness app from the App Store.