The photos in Upload demonstrate how smartphones have opened up a “new way of visual thinking,” Caldwell said. Smartphones give people cameras and editing tools they carry around in their pockets, he said, allowing them to catch moments and images they see through their “peripheral vision” while going about their daily lives.

“Taking pictures was secondary to other activities,” Caldwell said, “such as watching kids, looking out a train window, or even looking at other art.”

Caldwell wasn’t the only one asked to judge the photos in the exhibit. Visitors to the gallery also were invited to pick their favorites. The top vote getters are identified in the gallery, so visitors can see how their favorites compare to those of the rest of the public.

Upload was the gallery’s first exhibit of 2013. On March 8, the next three exhibits will go on display. In “Here. After.,” Asheville artists Moni Hill, Alicia Armstrong, and Spencer Herr explore art’s role in the wake of tragedy. In “Southern Comfort,” photographer Ben Nixon documents the Southern landscape. In “Older than Dirt,” potters Jim Cullen, Jim Cornell, Gary Huntoon, David Zacharias, Doug Dacey, John Turner and Claude Graves update an age-old medium.

There will be an opening reception from 5-8 p.m. March 9, preceded by a guided “walk and talk” tour at 4 p.m. For more information, call 828-859-2828, go to www.upstairsartspace.org, or visit the gallery at 49 S. Trade St., Tryon, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

– article submitted by Harold Maass