Looking at Trish Morrissey’s images and my own childhood images made me think about how digital photography is changing all the industries of the practise, among which family photography. Moreover, twenty years ago you carefully set up each image because you had to pay for each frame, you were limited on numbers and you had to wait to see the results. I remember it being so exciting picking up freshly developed photographs from the developers and pulling them out of their packaging making sure to carefully handle the pictures by holding them by their sides. There were also the times of disillusionment because of a couple of images being incorrectly exposed and not surviving. This element of enthusiasm towards viewing our pictures for the first time has evidently changed.
When you’re paying for something you appreciate it more, when something’s free people have a habit of taking it for granted and now we no longer have to pay for every single image we capture. We no longer have to wait to see the results, in fact they immediately appear on the LCD screen and if the exposures incorrect? It’s fine, just delete it and take another. In fact you can make as many mistakes as you like, because it’s not going to cost you a penny (pence just didn’t sound right). This new attitude towards picture taking and the lack of wariness of pressing down that shutter button is of course changing family photos/albums. To start with I’ll mention perhaps the first thought that comes to mind; Social Networking. The internet combined with digital photography has created websites where we can upload as many photographs as we like and share them with all of our friends. Just like almost everyone alive and connected to the internet I have a Facebook account and have tons images of myself photographed either alone or with friends and family. All these images only date back to a few years ago which reminds me of when I was 16 and in college, before any of us had digital cameras. The first semester was ending and we were all going on our Christmas break for a couple weeks, which prompted me to buy a disposable camera and take some pictures with my friends from college and this was the only time I took pictures during my two years at college. The camera was always handed to someone else to take a picture of me with a friend, unless I took one of other people, to make sure it was well framed and everyone was ready for the camera to smile or do something ‘hilarious’, like the two fingers behind the head gag, which till this day I don’t get. Back then when a camera was taken out you were far more aware and focused when having your image taken. If you took a look at most of the pictures I have up on facebook now however, it wouldn’t take much to realise most of them are terribly taken because they are carelessly taken. The arm visibly stretched out as someone poses and takes the image at the same time, heads cut off because of lack of attention to framing, no to mention the pictures of absolute nonsense. It almost sounds as if the next thing I utter is going to be something like ‘this digital crap has ruined photography!’, but I’m not, it’s just changed it. In fact, I like digital photography, I like the speed, I like the price and I like the pictures of nonsense that come out of it that we couldn’t have before because it wasn’t affordable.
I’ve gotten to that age now where more and more people I know are having babies, even deliberately in fact. Photos of babies were strategically taken in the past, the only time you were just whipping out the camera for an unprepared snapshot was when they’ve done something absolutely adorable like made a mess while eating or doing things for the ‘first time’. My friends on the other hand are able to take tons of pictures of their babies now, doing nothing really, just ‘there’. It’s also interesting to see the casual images taken by people with their digital cameras at weddings. The reality and informality of the reception with friends and family really comes out. Whereas images taken by the photographer, an outsider, always seem to reflect the night from a different perspective, a much more formal evening minus the playful silliness that really goes on as well. Taking all these factors into consideration many believe that the ‘family album’ may eventually become obsolete, however I think that’s perhaps an exaggeration. It is very true that photos are now being uploaded onto sites like Facebook, but several images for special occasions like weddings and baptisms are still being printed and when you think about albums in the past, it was only really special occasions which were graced with the presence of a camera. Nonetheless, less images are being put into the family album, like holiday snaps have a tendency to just be thrown online and left there, this I think reflects our enjoyment of spectacle. Moreover, what I mean is, sometimes people don’t just take the photographs for their own memory, however also take them to boast about where they’ve been and what they’ve seen. Which awakens memories of going to people’s houses and have them flaunt their latest album of holiday snaps and tell you little stories about their holiday as they went through the album. Now, you can just have a quick whiz through it, tell them you seen them and that they were lovely, recall a particular photograph you liked to prove you’ve seen them, try to change the subject and avoid all the humdrum adventure telling that’s only interesting to them because they were there.
To give some examples as to what I have been talking about I will display some photographs taken in recent years of myself and my brother, therefore family photographs, to further emphasise these changes I’m talking about.
The above photograph is a perfect example of how we carelessly take pictures which often result in terrible framing.
Arm stretched out.
Pictures of nonsense.
The last image I'm posting (below) is of two separate images placed next to each other, both taken by my mother however twenty years apart.
The image to the left was taken just last December and it was only after it was taken that we realised how similar it is to an image from our childhood. Furthermore this echoes the fact that both images were taken by the same photographer and also perhaps that the photographer has been brought up on analogue and is used to instructing her children to stand side by side in a chosen area for a specific construction and a more reliable result of the photograph.
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