SwankoLab is here, and it’s — yes — swanky

So few things truly deserve to be called “swanky” these days. I mean, you’d have to agree we’re living in lexiconically demanding times when every third yahoo you see on TV is a “genius” and every businessman is a “visionary.” What chance does a genteel, old-school compliment like “swanky” have against that kind of mass-market dumbing-down? So when a product comes along which has the temerity to include the adjective right in its name, you have to look closely. You have to examine the thing. I’m happy to say that SwankoLab, the new iPhone photo-processing app from the guys behind Hipstamatic, earns its sobriquet. It really is swanky.

SwankoLab describes itself as a “handheld darkroom kit for your iPhone and iPod Touch” — about the only thing missing from the experience is the stench of the chemicals — and the video below gives you some sense of the app’s gloriously analog aesthetics. What it doesn’t clue you into is how tremendously powerful it is. Every “chemical” you add subtly alters the source image; every combination of chemicals yields a different result, and even the order in which you add them alters the look of the final product. I’ve been fooling around with the app for several days and posting some of the results (including the one above) at my year-long iPhone photo project, Pix365, and I’ve only just scratched the surface of what it can do. It’s a strong addition to the field of iPhone photo apps, a stunning deal at just two bucks, and a great example of the wit and design smarts clever developers are building into tiny, single-purpose apps for the smartphone market.