Social media continues to explode with photography, with an average of 60m photos posted every day on Instagram (that’s nearly 700 per second). Now, four years since its inception, Instagram has given birth to the first printed book of art photography. Out of the Phone is a new collection of exclusively mobile photography, all submitted on the site using the hashtag #outofthephone.  Pierre Legovic, who masterminded the project, says: “I had this ‘best of mobile’ photobook idea for a while. A few years ago, I created the Emotion Daily blog to show off pictures I liked and support emerging talent. Then I came up with the idea of a publishing house dedicated entirely to mobile photography – a way to extract instant art from the overwhelming digital flow.”  Seven weeks ago, he posted a shout-out for submissions that read: “1 hashtag/10 days/100 photographs”. Legovic was keen to collate the best Instagram images of 2014, but only wanted to give people a short amount of time to instinctively decide on their favourites. “I liked the idea of building a book in weeks, but covering a year of observation,” he says.  Submissions came from established photographers such as Dan Cristea, Richard Koci Hernandez, Benjamin Lowy, Q Sakamaki and Ako Salemi, as well as lesser-known contributors. “It’s so satisfying that we received a good mix of professional photographers and beginners who may have discovered photography with the iPhone but have a great eye,” says Legovic. “The democratic aspect of mobile – its ability to let photographers share, connect and learn from each other – is so interesting, and so important.”  He’s very quick to point out that Out of the Phone was not a contest, and that it was absolutely open to all: “The final selection was made based on our sensibility and our editorial guidelines, nothing else.”  After 10 days of hashtag discoveries, here are the best of the 100 images chosen, which span generations and continents and take in everything from Batman to Benidorm, Iran to Istanbul.
Out of the Phone, the first book of its kind, compiles inspiring moments from 2014 taken by 100 photographers all over the world on Instagram. Meet the man who made it happen – and see the stunning results