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Picture This: The Impact of Digital and Mobile Imaging Practices on the Collection and Dissemination of Family Photographs

Lisa Gye
Swinburne University of Technology
Media and Communications

Description

In a post-modern age, memories are no longer Proustian madeleines, but photographs. The past has become a collection of photographic, filmic or televisual images. We, like the replicants [of Blade Runner], are put in the position of reclaiming a history by means of its reproduction. (Giuliana Bruno, 1990: 183)

Changes in image technologies in the past one hundred years have changed the ways in which we represent ourselves to ourselves. The static, immobile no-space of early family portraiture reinforced fundamental beliefs about the universality and stability of the family unit. Portable snapshot photography not only allowed for the greater mobility of family images as they circulated amongst family and friends but it also allowed for the depiction of families on the move. Families have come to be seen as dispersed and mobile but until recently were still bounded by the materiality of the photograph as a visual artefact of shared familial relations. The increasingly immaterial nature of digital photographs is changing the ways in which families construct aides de memoires of their shared lives and this will undoubtedly impact on how we imagine our familial connections in the future.

The aim of my research is to examine changes to domestic imaging technologies in the form of digital cameras and mobile camera phones. I am interested in how these technologies are changing the ways in which families document their lives through photography. Historically family photography has played a key role in the construction and maintenance of both individual and familial identity. I want to critically examine how such changes to the ways in which we practice family photography will impact on the identity formation of families and individuals.

The research will focus on the following key questions:

• What are the techniques employed by families for the collection, storage and distribution of their photographs?
• How have new technologies such as the digital camera and mobile camera phone changed the ways in which families collect, store   and distribute photographs of themselves?
• To what extent do new technologies aid or disrupt existing photographic practices in relation to the family?
• What new modes of representation of the family do these technologies allow? For example, how does the practice of life caching   using such services as Nokia’s Lifeblog or Yahoo’s Flickr impact on the representation of families not only to themselves but to   others outside the family unit?
• What impact does all of the above have on the identity formation of individuals and families?

Methodology

Literature Review

As I have been researching in this area for some years, I have already undertaken a reasonably extensive literature review of the following topics:

• Photographic representations of the family
• Uses of photography in genealogical research
• Uses of photography in autobiography
• The promotion of private memorialisation as a legitimate cultural practice

My Masters thesis/project “Halflives: A Mystory” [http://halflives.adc.rmit.edu.au] had a considerable focus on the uses of photography in genealogical research and autobiography.

My more recent research has concentrated on mobility and mobile practices. The literature review will extend this research with a particular emphasis on the history of vernacular photography and representations of the family and the use of digital cameras and mobile camera phones for family photography.

Empirical Research

My research will need to document and analyse existing and potential platforms and programs used for the collection, storage and dissemination of family photographs. This will mean examining traditional analogue modes such as the family album as well as new digital modes such as Flickr, Lifeblog and Kodak’s Picture Maker System. As new modes of digital collection, storage and dissemination are being continually introduced into the market, the research will need to keep abreast of and document new developments in this area.

I also intend to undertake qualitative research in the form of extended interviews with subjects on their collection, storage and dissemination practices in relation to family photographs. The interviews will broadly focus on such questions as:

• What are your usual methods for collecting family photographs?
• What are your usual methods for storing family photographs?
• What are your usual methods for disseminating family photographs?
• In what ways, if any, have these practices changed in relation to new digital imaging techniques?
• What role does family photography play in your own understanding of your place in the world?
• What role does family photography play in the construction of your family narratives?
• What role does family photography play in your sense of coherence as a family unit?

The responses of the interview subjects will undoubtedly lead to further unanticipated lines of research.