- Linda Hollier
Updated: Apr 28
In photography, shutter speed refers to the length of time a camera’s shutter remains open. The faster the shutter speed, the faster the shutter will close, creating a sharp image. This is perhaps one of the camera’s most amazing attributes. It has the ability to freeze a split second, often capturing details which the human eye can so easily miss.
The slower the shutter speed is, the slower the shutter will close, resulting in an unsharp image. Slow shutter speed thus captures movement, in the scene, or on the part of the photographer, as motion blur. At the same time, the longer the shutter remains open, the more light it lets in.
The more light it lets in. This concept has always fascinated me on many levels. Whilst the slower closing of the shutter can obviously bring about a light trail, I often wonder how much more of the essence of a subject, how much more Light, can be captured in this way.
By nature, I am very sensitive to the energies of both people and places. With this is mind, I began to photograph people using the Slow Shutter Cam app on my iPhone, focusing on the energy I sensed around them.
To artistically portray the people in my works, I set myself the challenge of using only my iPhone for capturing and editing, No laptops, no iPads or other devices come into play. Using various apps, I create my own textures and blends and at times paint by finger on my iPhone screen.
I soon noticed that I was photographing not only movement, where past, present and future were being depicted in one photo as it were, but that the figures I captured were often surrounded by a distinct light. By letting in more light with the slow shutter app, perhaps, I am capturing energy! I feel this adds to the sense of Presence I am aiming to portray.
Shortly after I began experimenting with the Slow Shutter Cam app, I attended a Whirling Dervishes Sema Ceremony in Istanbul. This inspired me to focus on discovering new ways in my art to portray the whole concept of rootedness and movement occurring simultaneously, bringing about an even stronger sense of Essence and Presence. The individuals in my artworks appear to be rooted in a moment but at the same time appear to be moving in an other-worldly realm which is beyond space and time. The viewer is invited to follow them to discover the story that is waiting to unfold.
The famous photographer Minor White believed that whether the photographer was consciously present or absent at the moment the shutter is released shows up very subtly in the photograph. My iPhoneart flows out of my mindfulness practice but in a sense has become a practice in itself. My whole creative process is becoming more and more intuitive and this requires me to be very much in the moment.
It is interesting for all who love photography to note that Minor White also believed that when the photographer is in resonance with the subject at the time a photograph is made, the photograph will also seem to radiate the photographer’s presence. I interpret this as yet another form of Light being captured when the shutter is released.
The Mobile Art Movement has taken off in the age of social media. Light plays a very interesting role in the media. Light can shine on something, or light can shine through something. Marshall McLuhan, a communications theorist, used the terms “light on” and “light through” to highlight the media that went hand in hand with various cultures throughout the ages.
In the Middle Ages, in the west, light had shone through. The stained glass windows of many cathedrals are testimony to this. The windows and the way the light was being let in told stories to the beholder and were meant to point the one looking to a Presence beyond. The dominant belief at the time was that the light of Spirit was shining through all that was taking place.
The invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the 15th century had ushered in the Renaissance, an age of “light on”. The printed word had to be looked at. Light had to be shone on the printed word so that the eye could read it.
What excites me as an iPhone artist is that the digital age has once again ushered in “light through”, and the gadgets we currently use are like electronic stained glass. Their high resolution makes them luminous and beautiful, with light shining in from behind. Each artwork created on a mobile device can be instantly shared and viewed on such an interface. It is in this milieu of luminosity that the Mobile Art community has been established.
The dark side of the current state of media in the digital age is that social media can blind us to what is actually happening. Users can become trapped in their own filter bubbles, hearing only from like-minded people. Fake news is becoming common and can easily spread. There is a great lack of transparency.
To further explore the concepts of light through, filters, and transparency, I have created a series of six gauze-like veils titled #interact2connect, which I am currently photographing around the world. Six of my iPhone artworks are printed onto these veils. By interacting with people I meet or with strangers, we connect. When the veil is held up in the light, the veil also interacts with the individual and the surroundings.
Next time you are out photographing or creating mobile art, I invite you to become aware of the ways in which you are “Letting in the Light”.
This blog post first appeared as a Guest Blog Post on the website of Rad A. Drew Photography.
- Linda Hollier
Updated: Dec 3, 2025
Recently, I have begun exploring the use of AI as a creative assistant in the development of 3D models for augmented reality. This feels like a natural extension of my iPhoneart practice - one that allows familiar themes of presence, perception, and embodiment to move into new spatial territory. By engaging with AI tools, I am opening my work to fresh forms of collaboration and experimentation, translating intuitive image-making into sculptural, immersive experiences that can exist within the viewer’s own environment.
Inspired by the Inuit story of Sedna, Mother of the Sea, the above work whispers a simple truth: when we honour the ocean, the ocean can continue to nourish life.
In Sedna’s Echo, photographed above on the prairies in Alberta, Canada, I continue to explore how the digital can become a vessel for presence and reflection. The figure, calm and poised, holding a staff as a marine creature rests at her feet, embodies both strength and guardianship. She stands as a symbol of our relationship with the living ocean and of the balance between human awareness and the natural world.
Presented in augmented reality, Sedna’s Echo exists only when brought into being by the viewer. Appearing within their own surroundings, she transforms ordinary space into a moment of quiet encounter. This act of placement echoes my ongoing interest in thresholds - between the physical and the virtual, the visible and the invisible - and affirms my belief that art can awaken a deeper sense of connection wherever it appears.
Sedna’s Echo embodies the coexistence of movement and stillness, presence and flux. The figure stands grounded and composed, holding her staff as a marine animal rests calmly at her feet. This stillness is intentional - it acts as an anchor, a moment of pause that invites contemplation rather than urgency.
At the same time, movement is implied rather than enacted. The ocean lives in suggestion: in the symbolism of the figure, in the animal presence, and in the medium of augmented reality itself. Though the body remains still, the surrounding digital space is in constant flux - light shifts, environments change, and the work is re-situated each time a viewer encounters it in a new location.
Similarly, presence and flux operate simultaneously. Sedna’s Echo is fully present only in the moment it is summoned into a viewer’s physical space through AR. Yet its context is never fixed; it adapts to each environment, each perspective, each act of witnessing. In this way, the work reflects a core belief in my practice: that stillness does not negate movement, and presence does not resist change. Instead, they coexist as states of heightened awareness.
Sedna’s Echo will be presented at Miami Art Week as part of Code Blue, an exhibition curated by Balanced Forces that brings artists together around themes of ocean awareness and environmental responsibility. The project also marks my first participation in a collective NFT drop, another unfamiliar yet compelling framework through which the work can live and circulate. Entering these spaces feels aligned with my interest in expansion and exchange, allowing the work to move beyond traditional formats while remaining rooted in contemplation, care, and connection.
The exhibition will take place on Miami Beach at the Miami South Beach Boardwalk in front of the Sagamore Hotel from December 4th-6th, 2025.
- Linda Hollier
Visions of a Sustainable Future, presented by Modular Commons, is an open-air Augmented Reality exhibition that maps creative solutions for a just, regenerative tomorrow across the public spaces of COP30, the UN Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil. Using a walkable AR map and a “living library” of projects - from artwork and architecture to community campaigns - the project brings imaginative, site-anchored interventions into dialogue with delegates and the wider public, inviting visitors to pause, explore practical ideas, and imagine how inner and collective shifts can shape a resilient future.
At the heart of the the opening speech by the president of Brazil at the Leaders’ Summit, was the Brazilian notion of Mutirāo, a spirit of collective effort and solidarity. This shared purpose, he said, can bridge divides, inspire cooperation and drive progress where it is most needed.
My artwork Transformation will be shown at the exhibition. It is a contemplative artwork that invites a quiet inner shift as the seed of wider collective change.
The piece shows two human figures in transition, partially dissolving into or emerging from a textured field. Their edges are porous and fluid, neither fully formed nor fully gone. The abstract lines and constellated markings across their bodies suggest energetic pathways, connections forming or reconfiguring and a shift in identity, perception, or state of being.
The muted, earthy-grey background evokes liminality - a space between worlds, neither past nor future. Subtle hints of turquoise, red, and light infusions appear like life force or signals of awakening within the figures. The lack of sharp boundaries feels like the dissolving of an old self-pattern and the emergence of a new one.
At a moment when COP30 calls for implementation and systemic transitions, this work offers a gentle yet essential reminder: the futures we build externally are shaped by the consciousness we cultivate within.
The piece unfolds through Augmented Reality as an intimate moment of activation, encouraging viewers to pause, listen inwardly, and sense an opening towards greater clarity and connection.
Transformation proposes that sustainable futures emerge when personal awareness evolves into collective resonance. As individuals shift towards empathy, presence, and a renewed relationship with the Earth, the ground for collaborative, regenerative systems can take root. Within the intensity of COP30, the work offers a reflective space where inner change and collective transformation meet - inviting both to unfold.
Through Augmented Reality, the viewer is gently drawn into this process, suggesting that personal awakening can inspire collective transformation and more sustainable ways of relating to each other and the Earth.
The exhibition runs from November 10 - 21, 2025, in Belém, Brazil.