You don’t look at a Luisa Dörr photograph and wonder what kind of gear she uses. Her work is arresting.
But even Dörr recognizes that the kind of camera – the iPhone – has been integral to her work and getting her name on the radar of editors and art directors across the world.
Apple finally collaborated with Dörr on an enchanting “Shot on iPhone” project featuring the colorful female wrestlers of Bolivia know as the Flying Cholitas.
Dörr traveled to the Andes Mountain Range with Michael Johnson, her co-director on the latest Apple short film (posted on YouTube and below).
The video, shot with iPhone XS and iPhones XS Max, is not some quirky snapshot of wrestling, but a story about culture and women who are fighting stereotypes and supporting their families.
“These women fight in this country every day,” Dörr says in a behind-the-scenes video also on YouTube. “They fight to be able to raise their kids and to put food on the table. What is important about this project is who these women are and empower these women in a country that is very male-oriented.
“I think this is the story we must tell here.’
The story of Luisa Dörr
Photo: Luisa Dörr
Dörr, who is from a small village in Brazil, was making portraits with her iPhone and posting them on Instagram when TIME magazine discovered her feed and hired her in 2017 to photograph 46 influential women for a special issue with 12 different covers.
All the photos – which include Hilary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Serena Williams – were shot on iPhone with only a reflector to bounce light toward her subject.
In the behind-the-scenes video for her latest project, Dörr credits the iPhone with helping her bring intimacy to her photography.
“My story in photography began more or less five years ago,” she says on the video. “I believe the iPhone helps me greatly to get access to people. It is an object that everyone has in their pocket.
“It feels like I am taking photographs with nothing but my hands.”
