I must have dropped my iPhone in the ocean this weekend when I transferred from an inflatable dinghy to a small rowboat in Rockport Harbor, Maine. It was a beautiful morning and I was in the flow of filmmaking. When I next reached for my phone, it was not in my back pocket. All of the candid photographs and images of day-to-day life I’d taken with my phone since January 1st - the last time I backed up to my main photo drive - were now lost at sea. Reflecting on this loss - I’ve realized just how much beauty I hold in my phone.

Noah David Smith, “Rockport Harbor” 2025

Noah David Smith, “Postal Sketch” 2024 - iPhone

In this glass and metal box were the quick visual notations of ideas that struck me - short films surreptitiously captured, observations of travel and the ever-changing New York City neighborhood I have lived in for three decades, street portraits and details, and the consistent documentation I have of my three sons growing older. In short, five months of genius and banality.

One of my pleasures is very rapidly scrolling through these computational photographs on my phone — swinging and swiping my finger back and forth, watching my life and thoughts happen again, forwards and in reverse. Revisiting the thoughts, impulses, moments of recognition, perplexity, and documentation comforts me — memories of a life lived.

Noah David Smith, “December 16th, 2021” - iPhone

This version is made from an iPhone capturing the back of a scrolling 5D - it will give a sense - but without the magical fluidity of the iPhone’s smooth processor.

Elements of photography - stopping time as it passes by - is steeped in loss from the get go. So, intellectually - losing these images - feels somehow liberating. Looking for a silver lining - I think of the Jewish atonement tradition of the High Holy Days - when people throw bread in the water - casting off the sins of the previous year so that they can start fresh again - in the present.

Of course I wish I had the pictures - as a maker, collector and sorter of images - having a gap in the archives is sloppy and unprofessional - and having a photographic memory - meaning not that I remember everything - but rather I remember what I photograph - it’s a thing….

Noah David Smith, “Whimsy,” 2024 - iPhone

When I look at a quick random selection if iPhone movies from last year - I realize I have captured plenty of poignant and joyful moments - which without the iPhone - would never have been recorded. This is one of the true powers of the ubiquity of the iPhone.

Noah David Smith, “Washies - ,” 2024 - iPhone

The funny thing is - I really don’t mind - the jolt has focused me on the present and the future - the past has literally floated away. I have faith that the now invisible moments I captured in the winter of 2025 were lived - the thoughts were thought - in short - the work was done. On to new moments and images !

Noah David Smith, “Passage” 2024 -i Phone

And there sure was a pleasure in being phone-free for those few days.