Kirsti Itameri - The Fly

Kirsti Itameri

“Well you gotta have a camera to take the picture.” - Elliott Erwitt on how he takes his photographs Exactly. That’s all it takes. A camera. Not necessarily the biggest one, or the fanciest one, or the most expensive. And I learned to shoot with all of them. After four years in a photography program where I was trained to use devices from a 4x5 camera to a Hasselblad with a Leaf digital capture back, I stopped taking photos. Not completely, but my life became such that I would get a camera out for “an occasion” or “an event.” This went on for years until I discovered that I could shoot square, black and white images with the camera in my phone. I started using an iPhone to photograph in July 2009 and have made at least one photo per day ever since. The phone enables me to always have a camera available and to be discreet. The result has been an ongoing project that serves as a document of New York City, where I live. I envision the images being viewed like a collage of moments and details, a tapestry of New York City life.