Photographs as things – photographs of things. A texto-material perspective on photo-sharing practices

Abstract

Recent changes in visual communication refer to photography becoming ‘networked’ due to the prevalent practice of sharing photographs immediately after capture via instant messaging tools or social media applications. Photo sharing thus represents a pervasive and natural activity in current highly mediatized societies. This paper focuses on communicative practices of photo sharing against the background of practice theory putting particular emphasis on the role and status of the photographic object within sharing practices. In doing so, the paper argues for a transmedial, texto-material perspective that conceptualizes photographs as objects and texts, understanding them as doubly articulated artefacts. Three modes of photo sharing that strongly differ regarding the role of the shared photographic objects are discussed: (1) sharing photographs to talk about images, (2) sharing photographs to communicate visually and (3) phatic photo sharing. This analytical systematization is followed by a discussion of the potentials, risks and ethical challenges of photo sharing and sharing economies. Summarizing, the article draws implications for the future critical discussion of photo sharing and for the empirical analysis of photo-sharing practices.

Keywords:

• photo sharing
• personal photography
• mobile visual communication
• phatic communication
• texto-materialist perspective
• practice theory
• information and communication technologies
• transmedia
• media manifold