This Art Framer’s Absurd App Lets You Put iPhone Pictures in Snazzy Gold Frames

Suddenly, your cat pics are totes classy.

You know what your cat pictures really need? Framer Eli Wilner knows what they need. They need something to make them seem less cheap, less digital. They need something to make them more old-world.

They need, for example, a 17th-century Northern European frame with a woman’s face carved into the top and a lion’s head at the bottom. Or, if that’s not your speed, consider a 19th-century Italian gilded “cassetta”-style frame with an acanthus at the outer edge.

You can now add such frames to your selfies and your #squadgoals pictures of you and your friends, at no cost, with the free eWilner Frames iPhone app. Wilner helpfully names the app eWilner, because e stands for electronic.

An artwork by John Giorno, enhanced with the eWilner app.

An artwork by John Giorno, enhanced with the eWilner app.

The app is also a selling tool; the digital frames are free, but the actual Northern European gold frame will run you $85,000 at Wilner’s New York shop, while the more affordable Italian one is tagged at just $18,500.

Additionally, Wilner’s going to make out like an e-bandit when you get bored with the four frames that come free and start paying 99 e-cents a pop for the dozens of other e-frames on this e-app.

It’s e-mazing!

“Throughout the history of art, frames have been essential to the presentation of pictures,” Wilner, who serves major museums and auction houses, tells the New York Times. “In the digital age, as more people take and share photographs, it’s important that we not forget how great frames can also enhance pictures from their wedding, honeymoon or bar mitzvah, and make them special.”

A sculpture by David Hammons, enhanced with the eWilner app.

A sculpture by David Hammons, enhanced with the eWilner app.

Framing isn’t all the app can do, either. Tap the pen nib icon while you’re framing your snaps and you can adjust brightness, focus and contrast, add effects, and even draw on your picture, so you can, say, make a big red heart around your sweetie before putting him or her in a classy 19th-century frame that apes Northern European styles of the 17th century with a dark walnut exterior and a gilded inner liner.

The author's cat, Barnaby, in the process of being enhanced with the eWilner app.

The author’s cat, Barnaby, in the process of being enhanced with the eWilner app.

That one’s free, but the genuine, non-digital frame is going to cost you $65,000.


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