Digital photography: communication, identity, memory

In the paper

“In the analogue age, personal photography was first and foremost a means for autobiographical remembering, and photographs usually ended up as keepsakes in someone's (family) album or shoebox.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sontag 1973
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Barthes, 1981

In the paper

“Pictures sent around by a cameraphone are used to convey a brief message, or merely to show affect.”

In the paper

“Not coincidentally, the cameraphone merges oral and visual modalities-the latter seemingly adapting to the former.”

In the paper

“Recent research by anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists seems to suggest that the increased deployment of digital cameras-including cameras integrated in other communication devices-favors the functions of communication and identity formation at the expense of photography's use as a tool for remembering.(Harrison, 2002;Schiano, Chen and Isaacs, 2002;Gary and Gerrie, 2005).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Harrison, 2002 source
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Schiano, Chen and Isaacs, 2002
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Gary and Gerrie, 2005

In the paper

“The rapidly increasing popularity in the use of cameraphones supports and propels this new communicative deployment of personal photography.”

In the paper

“While the internet allows for quick and easy sharing of private snapshots, that same tool also renders them vulnerable to unauthorized distribution.”

In the paper

“Second, personal photography has not changed as a result of digital technologies; the changing function of photography is part of a complex technological, social and cultural transformation.”

In the paper

“Part of the digital camera's popularity can be explained by an increased command over the outcome of pictures now that electronic processes allow for greater manipulability”

In the paper

“These emerging digital tools substantially affect the way people socialize and interact, and by extension, the way they maintain and consolidate relationships.”

In the paper

“The older group generally adheres to the primacy of photography as a memory tool, particularly in the construction of family life, whereas teenagers and young adults use camera-like tools for conversation and peer-group building.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Chiano, Chen and Isaacs, 2002
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Liechti and Ichikawa, 2000 source

In the paper

“However, that same manipulability may also lessen our grip on our images' future repurposing and reframing.”

In the paper

“Harrison's field study acquiesces a significant shift from personal photography being bound up with memory and commemoration towards pictures as a form of identity formation; cameras are used less for the remembrance of family life and more towards the affirmation of personhood and personal bonds.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Harrison, 2002 source

In the paper

“Showing pictures as part of conversation or reviewing pictures to confirm social bonds between friends appears more important than organizing photos in albums and looking at them-an activity they consider their parents' domain.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Schiano, Chen, and Isaacs, 2002

In the paper

“and yet the flipside is that pictures can also be easily manipulated by everyone with the appropriate toolbox.”

In the paper

“in fact, the camera has never been a dependable aid for storing memories, and photographs have always been twitched and tweaked in the process of recollection.”

In the paper

“Clearly, we are witnessing a shift, especially among the younger generation, towards using photography as an instrument for peer-bonding and interaction.”

In the paper

“In the past three years, photoblogs have become popular as an internet-based technology-a type of blog that adds photographs to text and hyperlinks in the telling of stories.”

In the paper

“The increased malleability of photographic images may suit one's need for continuous self-remodeling and instant communication and bonding.”

In the paper

“in fact, the camera has never been a dependable aid for storing memories, and photographs have always been twitched and tweaked in the process of recollection.”

In the paper

“Photography not simply reflected but constituted family life and structured an individual's notion of belonging.”

In the paper

“Instead, the function of memory reappears in the networked, distributed nature of digital photographs, as most images are sent over the wires and end up somewhere in virtual space.”

In the paper

“Digital cameras, cameraphones, photoblogs and other multipurpose devices seem to promote the use of images a the preferred idiom of a new generation of users.”

In the paper

“First, communication and identity formation are not novel uses, but have always been intrinsic functions of photography, also in the analogue days.”

In the paper

“One American study focusing on a group of teens between 14 and 19 years of age reports a remarkable incongruence between what teenagers say they value in photography and how they behave: while most of them describe photos as permanent records of their lives, their behavior reveals a preference for photography as social communication (Schiano, Chen, and Isaacs, 2002).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Schiano, Chen, and Isaacs, 2002

In the paper

“Second, personal photography has not changed as a result of digital technologies; the changing function of photography is part of a complex technological, social and cultural transformation.”

In the paper

“Photos are shared less in the context of family and home, and more in peer-group environments: schools, clubs, friends' houses.”

In the paper

“In their bounty, photographs gain value as 'moments,' while losing value as mementos.”

In the paper

“When pictures become a visual language channeled by a communication medium, the value of individual pictures decreases, while the general significance of visual communication augments.”

In the paper

“Taking, sending, and receiving photographs is a real time experience, and like spoken words, image exchanges are not meant to be archived (Van House, Davis, and Ames, 2005).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Van House, Davis, and Ames, 2005 source

In the paper

“The so-called cameraphone permits entirely new performative rituals, such as shooting a picture at a live concert and instantly mailing these images to a friend.”

In the paper

“Since a sneak-preview allows the photographer to instantly share the results with the photographed subject, there is room for negotiation: the subject's evaluation of her self-image may influence the next posture.”

In the paper

“computer programs let you change everything in your personal appearance, from lip size to skin tint.”

In the paper

“Clearly, these picture were made by digital cameras (or cameraphones) deployed by army personnel as part of their daily work routines-perfectly in tune with the popular function of photography as a ritual of everyday communication.”

In the paper

“The endless potential of digital photography to manipulate one's self-image seems to make it the ultimate tool for identity formation.”

In the paper

“The consequences of reframing and repurposing are particularly poignant when pictures move seamlessly between private and public contexts.”

In the paper

“Pictures once bound to remain in personal archives increasingly enter the public domain, where they are invariably brushed up or retouched to (retro)fit contemporary narratives.”

In the paper

“To some extent, the camera allows more control over our memories, handing us the tools for 'brushing up' and reinvigorating remembrances of things past.”

In the paper

“Few people realize that sharing experience by means of exchanging digital images almost by definition implies distributed storage: personal 'live' pictures sent around through the internet may remain there for life, turning up in unforeseen contexts, reframed and repurposed.”

In the paper

“The photographer's choice of frame and angle defines the portraiture, while the referent can still be further modified at the stage of development by applying retouching techniques.”

In the paper

“Memories are made as much as they are recalled from photographs; our recollections never remain the same, even if the photograph appears to represent a fixed image of the past.”

In the paper

“Rather than condemning the practice depicted by the images taken, the military subsequently ordered to ban personal photography from the work floor; pictures made for private use may no longer be taken outside penitentiaries.The 'incident' resulted in stricter communication regulations as well as a prohibition against taking and distributing personal photographs on military premises.”

In the paper

“Most pictures were made by prison guards and frequently featured two lower ranked members of the armed forces, Charles Graner and Lyndie England; they often posed thumbs up in front of individual or piled up prisoners who invariably showed signs of torture or sexual assault.”

In the paper

“Whereas analogue photographs were often erroneously viewed as the 'still' input for 'static' images, digital pictures more explicitly serve as visual resources in a life-long project to reinvent one's self-appearance.”

In the paper

“The shift to the digital has shown that photographs are simply raw material for an endless series of digressions.… As images, photographs encourage viewers to move beyond the physical world even as they assert the value of memory, place, and original moments.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Burnett 2004 source

In the paper

“Of course, this risk is never the direct implication of photography's digital condition, but it cannot be denied that digital media have made reframing a lot easier and smoother.”

In the paper

“This cultural condition has definitely affected the nature and status of photographs as building blocks for personal identity.”

In the paper

“The condition of plasticity and modifiability, far from being exclusive to personal photography, resounds in diverging cultural, medical, and technological self-remodeling projects.”

In the paper

“Rather, the shift in use and function of the camera seems to suit a more general cultural condition that may be characterized by terms like manipulability, individuality, communicability, versatility, and distributedness.”

In the paper

“The most remarkable thing about before-and-after pictures abounding on the internet and on television these days is that they do not promote perpetual modification of our pictures to portray a better self, but advertise the potential to modify our bodies to match our idealized mental images.”

In the paper

“Digital doctoring of private snapshots is just another stage in the eternal choreography of the (mental and cultural) image repertoires once identified by Roland Barthes.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Barthes

In the paper

“Beyond the superficial level, one can remove entire objects from the picture, such as unwanted decorations or add desirable features, such as sharper cheekbones or palm trees in the background.”

In the paper

“Only seconds after its taking, the picture allows a 'sneak preview' via the camera's small screen.The display shows a tentative result, an image that can be deleted or stored.”

In the paper

“The choreography of image repertoires, blending mental and cultural imaging processes, not only seems to reset our control over 'pictorial memory,' but implies a profound redefinition of the very term.”

In the paper

“Even if the functions of memory capture, communicative experience, and identity formation continue to coexist in current uses of personal photography, their rebalanced significance reverberates crucial changes in our contemporary cultural condition.”

In the paper

“From the culturally accepted modifiability of public images it is only a small step to accepting your own personal pictures to be mere 'stock' in the ongoing remodeling project of life's pictorial heritage.”

In the paper

“Anxiety over an individual's ability to control his or her self-image and public imago has not abated since analogue days of personal photography.”

In the paper

“Control over photographic images is hence not inscribed in the machine's ontology, and neither does the mind have full sovereignty over the (cultural) images it allows to enter memory.”

In the paper

“individuals articulate their identity as social beings not only by taking and storing photographs to document their lives, but by participating in communal photographic exchanges that mark their identity as interactive producers and consumers of culture.”

In the paper

“Software packages supporting the processing of personal photographs often bespeak the digital image's status as a liminal object; pixeled photographs are touted as bricks of memory construction, as software is architecturally designed with future remodeling in mind.”

In the paper

“The consequence of digital technology is that personal pictures can be retouched without leaving traces and can be manipulated regardless of ownership or intent of the 'original' picture, evidenced by the anecdote at the beginning of this article, about the student who was unpleasantly surprised to find a doctored picture of herself mailed around to (anonymous) recipients.”

In the paper

“I am not saying, though, that with the advent of digital photography people all of a sudden feel more inclined to photoshop their personal pictures stored in the computer.”

In the paper

“Intentionally taken to be sent back home as triumphant trophies or to be mailed around to colleagues, the pictures were a social gesture of bonding and poaching.”

In the paper

“Digital photography is part of this larger transformation in which the self becomes the center of a virtual universe made up of informational and spatial flows”

In the paper

“On the contrary, image control is still a pressing concern in the debates over personal photography in the digital age, even if the parameters for this concern have substantially shifted, adapting to new technological, social, and cultural conditions.”

In the paper

“The digital evolution that has shaped personal photography is anything but an exclusive technological transformation.”

In the paper

“The enhanced versatility and multi-purposing of digital pictures facilitates promotion of one's public image, and yet also diminishes control over what happens once a picture becomes part of a networked environment which changes its performative function upon each retrieval.”

In the paper

“In this day and age, (digital) photographs let subjects take some measure of control over their photographed appearance, inviting them to tweak and reshape our public and private identities.”

In the paper

“Flexibility and morphing do not apply exclusively to pictures as shaping tools for personal memory, but also apply more generally to bodies and things.”

In the paper

“A digital camera is a common possession among soldiers.Where once photographing war was the province of photojournalists, now the soldiers themselves are all photographers-recording their war, their fun, their observations of what they find picturesque, their atrocities-and swapping images among themselves and emailing them around the globe.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sontag 2004

In the paper

“My point is that the condition of modifiability, plasticity, and ongoing remodeling, equally informs-or should I say 'enculturate'-all four image-repertoires involved in the construction of personal memory.”

In the paper

“In many ways, digital tools and connective systems expand control over an individual's image exposure, granting her more power to present and shape herself in public.”

In the paper

“Memory, like photographs and bodies, can now be made picture perfect; memory and photography change in conjunction, adapting to contemporary expectations and prevailing norms.”

In the paper

“But since the framing of a picture is never fixed for once and for all, each re-materialization comes with its own illocutionary meaning attached, and each reframing may render the 'original' purpose unrecognizable.”

In the paper

“A photographed person exerts only limited control over the resulting picture.”

In the paper

“Even if still a memory tool, the digital camera is now pushed as an instrument for identity construction, allowing more shaping power over autobiographical memories.”

In the paper

“Cosmetic surgery configures the human body as a physical resource amenable to extreme makeovers; before-and-after pictures structure not only subjective selfconsciousness, but upon entering the public image repertoire, they concurrently 'normalize' intervention in physical appearance.”

In the paper

“Vice versa, the subject's power over images entering the mind may not be as manageable as it appears.Cultural ideals of physical appearance, displayed through photographs and evolving over time, often unconsciously influence the mind's (idealized) images of self (Sontag 1973: 85).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Sontag 1973: 85

In the paper

“These instances divulge that the acceptability of photographic manipulation of someone's personal photographs can hardly be separated from the normalized use of enhanced idealized images.”

In the paper

“Recollecting is not simply a revisionist project; anticipations of future selves inform retrograde projections, and these mental image maps, in turn, feed a desire to impact 'external' (camera) visions of our selves (Rose, 1992).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Rose, 1992

In the paper

“Enhancing color and beautifying faces is no longer the department of beauty magazines: individuals may now purchase photoshop software to brush up their cherished images.”

In the paper

“Distributing personal pictures over the internet or by cameraphone, which is now a common way of communication, intrinsically renders private pictures into public property and therefore diminishes one's power over their presentational context.”

In the paper

“Some pictures allegedly served as screensavers on prison guards' desktops, another sign of their function as 'office jokes' to be understood by insiders only.”

In the paper

“Barthes' exploration of analogue photography elucidates how the four imagerepertoires of self intersect and yet never match.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Barthes, 1981

In the paper

“Previews and reviews of the pixeled image, combined with easy-to-use photoshop software, undoubtedly seduce into pictorial enhancement.”

In the paper

“Personal photography may become a lifelong exercise in revising past desires and adjusting them to new expectations.”

In the paper

“In the networked reality of people's everyday life, the default mode of personal photography becomes 'sharing'.”

In the paper

“As stated before, digital photography is not the cause of memory's transformation; the digital camera derives its revamped application as a memory tool from a culture where manipulability and morphing are commonly accepted conditions for shaping personhood.”

In the paper

“Contemporary notions of body, mind, appearance, identity, and memory seem to be equally informed by the cultural condition of perpetual modification; our new tools are only in tune with the mental flexibility to refashion self-identity and to morph corporeality.”

In the paper

“Besides selecting or erasing pictures, photo-paint software permits endless retouching of images-everything from cropping and color adjustment to brushing out red eyes and pimples.”

In the paper

“Digital 'stock photography' uses public images as resources or 'input' to be worked on by anyone who pays for their exploit (Frosh, 2003).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Frosh, 2003 source

In the paper

“The photographed image-the desire to manipulate public imago-has never been outside the subject's reach, on the contrary.Since the late 1840s, commercial portrait photographers have succumbed to their patron's desire for idealized self-images the way painters did before the advent of photography: by adopting flattering perspectives and applying chemical magic.”

In the paper

“The awareness that any picture unleashed on the internet can be endlessly recycled may lead to a new attitude in taking pictures: anticipating future reuse, photographs are no longer innocent personal keepsakes, but they are potential liabilities in someone's personal life or professional career.”

In the paper

“We may hail the increased manipulability of our self-image due to digital photography while at the same time resenting the loss of power over one's pictorial framing in public contexts.”

In the paper

“pictures of family and friends are visible reminders of former appearances, inviting us to reflect on 'what has been,' but by the same token, they tell us how we should remember our selves as younger persons.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Barthes, 1981

In the paper

“Our photographs tell us who we want to be and how we want to remember; it is hard to imagine how the abundance of editing tools available will not effect our desire to brush up our past selves.”

In the paper

“Ironically, pictures that were casually mailed off as ephemeral 'postcards', meant to be thrown away after reading the message, became a permanent engraving in the consciousness of a generation; pictures sent with a communicative intent ended up in America's collective cultural memory as painful visual evidence of its military's hubris.”

In the paper

“Since the 1990s, people no longer expect indexical fidelity to an external person when looking at photographic portraits, particularly those in advertising; almost by default, pictures in magazines, billboards, and many other public sources are retouched or enhanced.”

In the paper

“However, it should be noticed that photo cameras have always been important instruments for the shaping of self-identity.”

In the paper

“The digital age will set new standards for remembrance and recall: the terms 'true' and 'doctored' will no longer apply to pictures, and neither can we speak of 'true' and 'false' memories.”

In the paper

“When trying to answer this question, we are confronted with a conspicuous absence of interdisciplinary research in this area.”

In the paper

“Our 'live pictures' and 'pictures of life' may become 'pictures for life'-even if unintentionally.”

In the paper

“Pictures taken by a cameraphone, meant as expendable enunciations to be shared with co-workers, have a distinctly different discursive power than our framed black-and-white ancestor photographs on the wall.”

In the paper

“Photographs could never be qualified as truthful anchors of personal memory; yet since the emergence of digital photography, pictorial manipulation seems to be a default mode rather than an option.”

In the paper

“The human mind actively produces visual autobiographical evidence through photographs, but also modifies it through pictures-cutting off estranged spouses or throwing away depressing images of themselves when they were still seriously overweight.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Strange, Gerrie and Garry, 2005 source

In the paper

“Instead, control over one's 'self-portrait' is a subtle choreography of the four imagerepertoires, a balancing act in which photographic images 'enculturate' personal identity.”

In the paper

“A large number of software packages allow users to restore their old, damaged and faded family pictures; in one and the same breath, they offer to upgrade your self-image.”

In the paper

“Yet without acknowledging the profound interlacing of mental, technical, and cultural levels involved in digital photography, we may never understand the intricate connection between identity formation and photography.”

In the paper

“However, the flipside of this increased manipulability is actually a loss of control over a picture's framed meaning: pictures that are amenable to effortless distribution over the internet, are equally prone to unintended repurposing.”

In the paper

“When pictures are taken by a digital camera, the subject may feel empowered to steer its outcome (the photographed or public image) because he or she may have access to stages formerly 'black boxed' by cameras, film roles, and chemical labs.”

In the paper

“The Abu Ghraib pictures became evidence in a military trial that incriminated the perpetrators responsible for the abuse shown in the pictures, but acquitted the invisible chain of command that obviously condoned such behavior.”

In the paper

“Networked systems define new presentational contexts of personal pictures, as sharing pictures becomes the default mode of this cultural practice.”

In the paper

“The impact of editing software on the profiling of one's personal identity is evident from many photoblogs and personal picture galleries on the internet.”

In the paper

“The lesson learned from the Abu Ghraib pictures-beyond their horrendous political message-is that personal digital photography can hardly be confined to private 'grounds'; embedded in networked systems, pictorial memory is forever distributed, perpetually stored in the endless maze of virtual life.”

In the paper

“Neither am I arguing that mental imaging processes change as a result of having more access to intermediate layers of photographic imaging.”

In the paper

“From the above observations we are tempted to draw the conclusion that digital cameras are becoming tools for communication, experience, and identity formation, moving away from their formerly prime functions as memory tools.”

In the paper

“Returning to the issue of power, it is difficult to conclude whether digital photography has led to more or less control over our personal images, pictures, and memories.”

In the paper

“The function of personal photography as an act of memory, as we have seen, is increasingly giving way to its formative, communicative and experiential uses.”

In the paper

“In May 2004, a series of the most horrific, graphic scenes of torture and violence used by American guards stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison against Iraqi detainees appeared in the press, and were subsequently disseminated through the internet.”

In the paper

“A well known example may clarify the meaning of distributed memory and demonstrate the intertwined meanings of personal and collective cultural memory: the Abu Ghraib pictures.”