The more time we spend glued to our iPhone cameras, the less we actually see

Apple’s iPhone 6 campaign is keen to remind us that we can all take beautiful photos. But while we stare into our screens we miss out on the richness of the world around us

Life’s beauty is easier to capture than ever. Just point your iPhone 6 at something and the muchness, fullness and wonder of the world is yours. A backpacker on a precipice, a skyscraper skyline in gorgeous light, lovely reflections in a puddle – all can be snapped with wonderful precision and richness. This is what Apple’s global advertising campaign is currently telling us, with huge prints plastered on British billboards shot by users with names like Gabby K, Dan C and Andrew P. (What has Apple got against surnames?)

These people live in a wonderful world: all magnificent deserts, rustic paths and well-shod feet (photographing your own feet is a particularly cool idea, suggests Apple). It doesn’t take a misanthrope to find this array of perfect modern beauty a bit false. No wonder a couple of Californian pranksters have been putting up satirical Apple posters that show, instead of ravishing sunsets, the kind of things they reckon people really take photographs of with their phones – clumsy selfies, mostly.

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