This was my first week with the Falmouth MA Photography programme.
The week opened up a series of questions on photography and its relationship with global imagery.
I wondered exactly what a global image is, in an environment where you can upload any photo onto the internet and it could be seen anywhere by anyone. I found it interesting to consider the parallels between the initial spreading of photography through the relative availability and accessibility of the daguerreotype, as it quickly spread across the world along the transportation networks, and the rise of photographs appearing on social media as cameraphones became a standard in every day life.
For the general public before high speed internet and social media, the photographs they took would seldom reach beyond their own homes. Proudly presented in a frame on the mantlepiece or carefully selected and preserved in treasured family photo albums, these intimate and personal memories were only shared in person with those who were invited in. The photographs otherwise shown to them would have been carefully selected for consumers, aimed to show them a definitive representation of the world.
The rise of social media and the camera phone changed everything, photography is more popular than ever before. Carefully selected moments or maybe not so carefully selected are presented to all your online friends. You can present whatever version of your life you want to anyone, instead of showing your most candid reflections to the few. To me, the ability to share my images far and wide and see others from anywhere in the world is a wonderful development for photography. It has definitely reinvigorated photography in that it is now so easy to take your phone out your pocket and present your own personal vision to the world. Understandably there are those who feel it is too much. How many selfies do we need to see? Is instagram over-saturating photography because of the millions of photographs posted every day? Or has the culture of instagram popularity shifted the goal posts for professionals who are struggling to keep up?
CRJ 