People document their movements in a crazy fashion. When you
think about it, we see very deeply into the lives of people around us because
they have been desensitised to what photographs are appropriate, and which are
intimate. We have all witnessed that one friend from high school post a sweet
photo of them with their grandparents, and then see that the next is a picture
of a blade with a caption like ‘I can’t believe I used to use this’. Somewhere
here the lines got crossed, maybe there are just too many ways to capture a
photo and it has resulted in some insanity. I’m sure that when people were
restocking their film cartridges and actually walking to the Kodak shop to get
them developed, they valued every one of those 24 shots; 25 for the people who
snuck in the extra one. There has been a larger impact on the removal of
physical film than we probably realise. By allowing people to snap 32GBs of
images onto a tiny Kodak, we have unleashed monsters. It has reached the point
where there is little room for any sort of reminiscence going through a shoebox
in a bedroom that isn’t followed by the idea to ‘post this on Facebook’.
Whoever thought that
inventing the digital camera would have lead to applications that mean people
are taking photos of their lunch, applying affects and adding some sort of
relative hash tag about it being #delicious, or #essential. Of course it’s
essential you nitwit, it’s food. Maybe it’s the technology that we have
available to us which implies that other people are checking their feeds as
much as you are, and that they care about what you’re eating for lunch. This whole
encouragement means that everyone is more likely to spawn images of their lives
and electronically thrust them in your face; “HERE I HAVE MORE PHOTOS OF
DESSERT”, “I HAVE LOTS OF ICE IN MY COKE!” “I’M DOING SOMETHING, LOOK AT ME!”
What I’m saying is that there needs to be some sort of mental filter. Even if
we were to ask “do people really need to see this?” silently in our heads
before clicking, I’m sure that the situation would improve.
What is worse about
this issue is that even people like me are offenders. By people like me I mean
the people who run from the camera at a party, or always offer to take the
photo rather than actually be in it themselves. Obviously I am not taking
photos every single day, but apparently there is some state of exception in my
mind where I too feel that I should be documenting and sharing. I recently went
on a holiday and took so many photos on my trip that I filled a 16GB iPhone and
more. This is hardly normal. I can understand this coming from people who take
photos every day, because now it’s more like a habituated thing more than a
desire to ‘share’; but from someone like me there has to be some sort of other
reason. Perhaps I am conditioned to belief that one must take as many photos as
they can while they are on holidays, because everyone back home is dying to see
them. Yeah, not so applicable when there are hourly updates.
Before, taking photos
of your holidays, coming home, developing them and placing them in a photo
album was the appropriate way to share the memories that you had gathered along
your travels. But I took photos in every city, of everything that I thought was
worthy, along with so many others that I did not, and made sure they were taken
on my iPhone so that they were easier to upload if I felt the need. Now that I am
back, I plugged my phone into my computer, selected all and dumped them into
some file marked ‘Europe 2012’. Already the title of the album tells me that I won’t
be looking in there often or really much again. It suggests that I am only
making room for more photos. I have already dated it as though I have had many
other trips. This really unnerves me. It also makes me wonder if I have
transformed into an every day, every movement photographer, or if I’m just
around for special occasions? Either way, the snap sound is only going to chirp
louder and louder all around the world until Apple decides that a new capture
signal is needed.
And please, don’t take my picture.
