The Photography of Camera Phones:

How camera phones have changed out perception of the photograph

By Caitlin McGarrell 43629482 MAS110

“To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt” – Susan Sontag (2006)

At the beginning of photography, only the wealthy and important could take photographs, and only the wealthy and important could choose what photographs were shared with the public. After the development of technology and the evolution of photography, taking and sharing photos is no longer limited to the wealthy. Susan Sontag wrote that photography was a cultural practice, and an evaluation of the world, and as our culture becomes more individualised, so too does our view of photography.

What different meanings can we find in a comparison of a formal digital photograph and a photo taken with a camera phone?

The element of the “everyday” is prominent. The photos taken with a camera phone are not usually socially significant, yet the personal and immediate qualities prevent the deletion of certain camera phone photographs.

These qualities provide a “Punctum” by creating a deeply personal & emotional reaction.

Figure 1. Untitled 2014

Photography is even more so a social right - with the camera phone, everyone becomes a photographer.

This provides a new means of which to report events, provide more sides to a story, and more freedom.

These photographs compare the formal and objective view of a political event, with a more immediate and personal one, one that provides a subjective point of view.

Figure 2. Enough is Enough 2014

Figure 3. The future 2014

“Camera phones capture the more fleeting and unexpected moments of surprise, beauty and adoration in the everyday” (Goggin 2012)

v  Duckworth, K. (Photographer). 2014. Untitled (Photograph). 8 February, 2014. from https://www.facebook.com/LDParties?fref=photo

v  Szilvasi, A. (Photographer). 2014. Enough is Enough (Photograph). 18 May, 2014. from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631714/Enough-Tens-thousands-disgruntled-Australians-walked-city-streets-opposition-Federal-Governments-budget-cuts.html 

v  Szilvasi, A. (Photographer). 2014. The future (Photograph). 18 May, 2014. from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631714/Enough-Tens-thousands-disgruntled-Australians-walked-city-streets-opposition-Federal-Governments-budget-cuts.html

Photographs

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