Photography, personalism and ubiquity: the effect of an increased access to cameras on the medium

Introduction

With the democratisation of cameras, photography as a medium is experiencing burgeoning ubiquity. This social inundation of mass media, and landscape of hyper-realism, has shaped the perceptions of photography and its functionality as a tool. In an increasing world of citizen journalism, photography is more present than ever and the didacticism of imagery and social understanding of photography as a truth is constantly developing. This essay aims to explore how the ubiquity of photography has shaped the medium thus far, looking at initial uses of photography, towards its development as a ‘social rite’, and what this means for photographers. Chapter 1 begins with exploring ideas of the label of photography being reduced to something axiomatic, and how the dilution of photography has affected the didacticism of imagery. This chapter discusses photography’s use as an art, versus its ‘condition as a document’, (Fontcuberta, 2014, pp.106). The postulation of photography as a document is further discussed in Chapter 2, where it explores ideas of truthfulness and colonialism within photography. It is truthful that everyone has preconceived biases, therefore it is also sensible to assume that these same preconceived biases affect a photographer, and therefore a photographer's work. This chapter discusses photographers such as Steve McCurry, and compares the reception of his work upon release, and theorises how this work would potentially be understood today, affected by an expanding landscape of citizen journalism. Chapter 3 further explores didacticism within photography, and how the medium may see a curated lean towards postmodernism, in order to retain significance to the title of photographer as a result of the democratisation of cameras. It explores how photographers need to differentiate themselves from others who also have access to the same technology, and find new ways to make their work relevant in an ever-changing landscape. This burgeoning ubiquity is changing the medium of photography in many ways, and it is important to recognise how it is shifting as photography develops into an integral segment of society. The impacts of photography can be seen both culturally and technologically, directing how we interact with the world and with media. If we are aware of these changes, photographers can continue to adapt their work, and socially, we can be aware of ideas of truthfulness within photography, and potentially view work and claims of truthfulness with more criticality than before.

Chapter 1 - Democratisation and Didacticism

Hitherto, photography was expensive to produce and required both a financial and time commitment. It was inaccessible, in On Photography, Sontag (1977) described it as ‘the toy of the clever, the wealthy, and the obsessed’ (pp.7). It wasn’t until 1900, when Kodak released the ‘Brownie’ camera, selling at $1, that photography began to become affordable. The ‘Brownie’ camera proved to be very popular and the demand encouraged Kodak to release a second version, selling for $2. This clear enthusiasm and need for photography meant that photography became more accessible over time, with the release of newer, better and more affordable cameras. In 1948 the Model 95 camera was released. This was the first polaroid camera released and allowed users to wait only 60 seconds to see their photograph after taking it. Photography only continued to become more accessible, in 1988 Fujifilm developed the FUJIX DS-1P, the world's first fully digital camera, and in 1989 they began to sell the FUJIX DS-X, the world’s first commercially available digital camera. We are now at a point where photography has never been so accessible. Cameras on mobile phones have allowed us to take a practically unlimited amount of photos, anywhere and everywhere, which are accessible immediately and kept forever, for a cost which is practically free.

Taking photos is not just easy, but it's common. In Posing, Acting and Photography, Campany (2006) puts forward how ‘what may seem like technical thinking often turns out to be thoroughly rooted in our always social understanding of media’. It is important when discussing photography, not just to consider the technical elements, and what Campany (2006) calls ‘technological determinism’ but the social aspect behind it. Photography is heavily ingrained culturally within our society, and we have seen a great shift in the years towards keeping memories digital. In Pandora’s Camera, Joan Fontcuberta (2014) discusses how ‘Photography has implanted itself in every area of modern life by virtue of its condition as a document’ (pp.106). We use photography not just artistically but in ways which allow us to document areas of our life. It is photography’s condition as a document that allows it to remain so popular, and encourages the use of it in a way which other ‘art forms’ do not. It is important to recognise, however, that ‘photography is not practised by most people as an art. It is mainly a social rite, a defence against anxiety, and a tool of power’ (Sontag, 1977, pp.8). Anyone can be a photographer and create work about themselves. The rise of social media has only perpetuated such photographic abundance, allowing anyone to post content to photo sharing platforms, allowing their work to be seen by anyone they wish. This access to photography would suggest that photography, and calling oneself a photographer, might be received culturally as something axiomatic, however this is far from the case. To refer to oneself as a photographer, unless operating in consumerist fields such as wedding photography, is generally perceived with a level of insincerity and elitism. This is, as I identify, one of the biggest issues photography is facing due to the rise of accessibility. What Sontag has pointed out is that for many, taking photographs is an action engrained deeply and culturally in modern society. It is so deeply ingrained in fact, that to suggest it is an art form is considered somewhat incorrect; 

‘As industrialisation provided social uses for the operations of the photographer, so the reaction against these uses reinforced the self-consciousness of photography-as-art’, (Sontag, 1977, pp.8).

Critiquing the label ‘elitist’ acknowledges it as one of the negative impacts affecting the medium. It is the commonplaceness of photography, the assumed place of it in daily life, that draws attention to those who refer to themselves as ‘photographers’. 

Whilst it is imperative to recognise the polarising differences between the photographic climate in which Sontag was writing about and the one we live in today, it does not besmirch the integrity of these claims and their standing in the modern photographic world. We may not understand photography in the same way as we did in the 70’s, however it holds true more now than ever that photography holds standing in modern culture as a ‘social rite’. We can look broadly towards the rise of citizen journalism that we have seen in recent years, through platforms such as X, to recognise the dilution of photography, and the landscape of hyperrealism created by the sheer amount of photography, propaganda, news and media available.

Excluding those who make work deemed ‘necessary’, namely those who work commercially, to call oneself a ‘photographer’ begs the question 'What's so special about you?’. Teenagers take photos every day through platforms such as Snapchat. Identifying oneself as a photographer implies more than a simple declaration; it suggests an assertion of something greater and more significant. It states, ‘I take photos’, but suggests something more; ‘I take photos… better than you. The photos I take are ones of meaning and care. They carry importance in a way which yours don't.’ There is only one way to receive such claims and that is with a level of elitism. The claim itself is disingenuous, as there is no way to make your photo more ‘meaningful’ in any way than another. Sontag (1977) discusses how ‘there is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera’ (pp.7), every time someone takes a photo, there is always a reason, and moreover these photos are in no way less meaningful than imagery taken with conscious purpose. Teenagers taking photos on Snapchat is no less a message and a representation of the world as is a carefully planned shoot. 

‘Those occasions when the taking of photographs is relatively undiscriminatory, promiscuous or self-effacing do not lessen the didacticism of the whole enterprise, This very passivity - and ubiquity - of the photographic record is photography’s ‘message’, its aggression’, (Sontag, 1977, pp.7).

One cannot take photos and expect them to be loved solely because you took them with artistic intention. There are photos taken all the time on phones and they are no less didactic than those taken with artistic intention. In order to create work worth paying attention to, more so than any other photograph people may be able to see, requires the conscious effort of creating photography with a selling point. A photographer risks their work being received as uncreative and unimportant if they are careless with their photographic approach, which ultimately leads to the aforementioned reactions.

It is this increasing accessibility of the medium which has caused photography to be received differently than other art forms. As Sontag (1977) argued that ‘photography is not practised by most people as an art’ (pp.8), that does not neglect the fact that many photographers do consider themselves artists and photography is widely practised as an art anyway. I think it is worth noting there is a more conscious distinction between the two. I think art can be divided into one of two categories - Art that is meant to be made and art that is meant to be received. I believe art that is meant to be made is art which focuses little on how the art will be received. Its main purpose was to be created, it fulfilled its function in the very creation of its existence and it served to work as a creative outlet for the artist. I believe these types of works are often received with a level of elitism, as they often require a level of context that the reader might not have, as they are often not always made with the reader in mind. Such types of art I believe include things such as poetry. I also believe photography nears entering this realm of space, as we move further away artistically from creating work that aims to be understood. It is with a rise of personalism that I believe has affected the photographic medium, as people aim to create something ‘new’. Art that is meant to be received, is for art such as film, tv and contemporary literature. I believe that generally these works are created with one goal, which is money making. It is the consumerist nature of these art forms which separates it from other art forms. The main goal of these art forms is to be received by an audience. These pieces aim to be understood, recognised and enjoyed. A large distinction between these two categories is accessibility. Film and tv is hard to create, even with mobile phones to create a film requires technology which is not necessarily accessible for most people. Contemporary literature is similar in that, whilst most people could write a story, it is generally quite difficult to write and publish a novel. Art that is meant to be made, however, remains in that category often because it is so accessible. It remains unconvinced of needing to be understood as it is quite often easy to create. Poetry doesn’t necessarily have to be long, and whilst there are rules it is generally understood as an art form that has none. You do not have to sit down for hours to write a poem, you might be able to, but that doesn’t mean that it necessarily requires it. Anyone could write a poem with little to no formal training, time or reason. It is for that reason that photography has started to enter this category, as the ubiquity of the medium has allowed it to be there. Whilst discussing his work on Google Street View, Doug Rickard spoke about how ‘The very definition of photography is expanding’. The accessibility of photography has created a space in which anyone can create photos which are no less didactic than the next. It may be important to recognise that whilst generally I believe each art form can sit within its category most of the time, this does not mean it is a blanket statement, and can be assumed it happens all the time. I believe there are many examples where there is overlap however I think, generally, the recognition remains the same. 

Chapter 2 - The expanding landscape of Citizen Journalism

With photography beginning as a ‘toy of the clever, the wealthy, and the obsessed’ (Sontag, 1977), it was only natural for it to flourish into a means of documentary, bringing the inaccessible to viewers at home. Organisations such as National Geographic often used photography as a means to ‘increase and diffusion geographic knowledge’ (Hubbard, 1892, pp.249). The magazine released its first publication in January 1905, releasing several full-page pictures of Tibet in 1900–01, and in June 1985 Steve Mccurry’s ‘Afghan Girl’ became one of the magazine's most recognisable images. National Geographic continued to make a name for itself, publishing photographs of areas of the world which those in the western world may not have seen before. It is important to recognise, however, the impact of narrative within these photos, and the contextual information that may have been missing to many of these viewers. In her essay ‘The Child I Never Was’, (Annette Kuhn, 1991) suggests that photographs are evidence, but cannot be taken at face value as evidence ‘can conceal, even as it purports to reveal, what it is evidence of’ (p.395). We cannot be trusted to accurately record using photographs, as even our own preconceived biases can impact how we take photographs and we we take photographs of. Steve Mccurry has been criticised for his work before; his picture ‘Taj Mahal and train in Agra’ has been criticised for reinforcing ideas of India that the west already has. Teju Cole (2016) asked ‘How do we know when a photographer caters to life and not to some previous prejudice?’. Whilst photography remained niche and lacked widespread availability, it was easy for the Western eye to see such images and continue believing them and the narrative they purported - however with the burgeoning ubiquity of photography, it is much harder for these preconceived biases to go unnoticed. 

‘The work that photographers do is no generic exception to the usually shady commerce between art and truth. Even when photographers are most concerned with mirroring reality, they are still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience’ (Sontag, 1977, pp.6).

John Grierson defined documentary as ‘the creative treatment of actuality and not actuality’, something which can be applied fundamentally to the treatment of photography. Both in the making and understanding of it, photography does not accurately purport what it aims to document, and therefore should not be understood as true to life. The Farm Security Administration photographic project in the late 1930s aimed to form an extensive photographic record of American life. The photographers involved, however, would take dozens of photographs until they were ‘satisfied that they had gotten just the right look on film - the precise expression on the subject's face that supported their own notions about poverty, light, dignity, texture, exploitation, and geometry’ (Sontag, 1977, pp.6). Many of these images became very influential, providing what is assumed to be an accurate representation of the lives of these individuals. Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange became a poster for the Great Depression, however the image was created through deliberate intervention by Lange. Can an image truly be an accurate representation of something if it has been carefully constructed, or if vital context is missing?

With the democratisation of cameras and the rise of social media, citizen journalism has started to surpass traditional ‘legacy’ media. Even in 2008, X, then Twitter, played a ‘significant role in Obama being elected president’ (Aldaihani and Shin, 2022, pp.233). His campaign started a movement towards ‘media organizations to recognize Twitter as an important tool to influence public salience’ (Aldaihani and Shin, 2022, pp.233). Many traditional media companies have begun maintaining themselves as media distributors through their Twitter accounts, as their awareness of this shift towards citizen journalism expands. There has been increasing interest in ‘creating and sharing news with others’ (Aldaihani and Shin, 2022, pp.234), which has led to journalism accounts being created by ordinary citizens, with the aim of sharing news. This shift towards citizen journalism was beginning as social media began to gain trust as a source of media, however it is the democratisation of cameras that has catalysed this shift. When something happens we no longer have to wait for legacy media, it is likely that someone was already there, filming it, and posting it to social media. Citizen journalist accounts on platforms such as X are also trusted more through the integration of independent fact checkers, who appear on ‘Community Notes’ introduced by X. On X, news organisations face similar expectations to engage with viewers as nonaffiliated journalist accounts, as ‘those that follow the news on Twitter are likely to be influenced by the basic norms of social media in general: social interaction, collaboration, two-way communication, and reciprocity’ (De Zúñiga, Diehl and Ardèvol-Abreu, 2016, pp.4), however they are also met with professional pressures to act in alignment with the social and professional expectations that they occupy usually. This lack of engagement with the viewer, and rejection of social media social formalities results in Twitter users following ‘nonaffiliated journalists more than news organisations’ accounts’ (Aldaihani and Shin, 2022, pp.236-237), as they perceive media bias and do not trust news organisations. This movement towards citizen journalism as a main source of news, impacts the way in which the news is trusted.

In his 1984 image ‘Afghan Girl’, which was published in the National Geographic in 1985, McCurry captured the portrait of a young Afghan girl. Her name was later discovered to be Sharbat Gula and it has been criticised that she received no significant compensation for her image, nor was she aware for a long time that the image even existed. The image features an eight year old girl with piercing green eyes looking directly at the camera, and the National Geographic article it featured in had it captioned ‘Haunted eyes tell of an Afghan refugee’s fears’. As McCurry had never asked Gula of her name, there was no mention of it in the article, nor was there any context around the image. Viewers reading the article at the time had no way of knowing or being aware of the context behind the image, nor the fact that Gula had actually been interrupted at school, and had her personal and cultural boundaries invaded by a stranger. Gula had a difficult life after the image was taken. Whilst McCurry rose to fame off of the back of such an infamous image, Gula sought refuge in Pakistan, living there for 35 years before she was imprisoned and deported for obtaining Pakistani identity papers ‘illegally’. She was married at 13, however her husband and eldest daughter both passed away of hepatitis C, which Gula herself had to be treated for whilst she was imprisoned. McCurry revisited Gula, who featured in his infamous ‘Afghan Girl’ image, in 2002, and reshot her holding up the original image. Now older, and holding up the portrait of her eight year old self, she looks into the camera again. It is the same eyes that stare down the barrel of the lense, however these ones belong to someone who is more aware of what is going on. She had not been made aware, until this moment, that the image existed, nor was she aware of her celebrity. 

If McCurry had released his ‘Afghan Girl’ image today, the democratisation of cameras and the  oversaturation of imagery and media in the present day, casts doubts on whether or not the image would be received in the same way. Control of the press has been lost and citizen journalism has carved a new path for information, meaning that in some ways readers may not be so easily misguided. The rise of citizen journalism has, as mentioned previously, furthered social media users' perceptions of media bias, due to the expectations of ‘those that rely on social media for news, they might expect journalists to operate outside traditional roles’ (De Zúñiga, Diehl and Ardèvol-Abreu, 2016, pp.4). National Geographic and news organisations would not be trusted to correctly report on the photograph, and unaffiliated journalism accounts would be more trusted to correctly report on the image. It could be assumed that these citizen journalist accounts would have identified Gula quickly, with the democratisation of cameras it is likely Gula would have seen the image much faster, and McCurry would have likely been held accountable. Of course there are plenty of exceptions and misinformation is still ever-so-prevalent, however if this image were to be released today it would be near impossible to see it without being met with the context in which the image sits, and it is doubtful that Sharbat Gula’s name would have gone unknown for so long. It is also questionable whether or not the image would have even been met with the same level of notoriety. McCurry’s career may have also taken a completely different pathway. He was praised for his work and this particular image catapulted his photographic career, however his name became questioned when the story behind the image was revealed and people discovered the truth. Increased access to technology in the 21st century and the rise of social media would have acted as a catalyst to the eventual reception of McCurry as the ‘bad guy’, potentially damaging his career, rather than furthering it.

Chapter 3 - Photography and Didacticism: A curated lean towards Postmodernism

Street photography is commonly used as a form of photographic creative expression, however with the popularity of photography becoming increasingly more widespread, it is much harder to achieve ‘interesting’ and ‘creative’ photos. As previously established, the significance of a photograph is not immediately decided in the action of using a camera; it is the notion and creative context behind creating an image that decides its appeal. Therefore, in the age of photography being so accessible, photographs are no longer enticing simply because they exist. Anyone can google search an image of Tibet in 1900-1901 and be met with several, and thus an image taken in any suburban street is not imperative to photographic culture simply because you took it with intention and a fancy camera. The didacticism of a teenager taking the same photo in a street, carelessly on their phone, is no less significant in nature. In his series ‘A New American Picture’ Doug Rickard creatively explores a new way of approaching street photography. Using Google Maps, he approaches how he can use Street View images to create a series documenting American Suburbs, without even leaving his house. He documented economically struggling and abandoned places, in an attempt to document the opposite of the ‘American Dream’. This creative approach to photography can only be attributed to the rising accessibility of the medium, which ultimately forces photographers to insert broader concepts into their work in order to distinguish themselves from others who now also have access to the technology. This is a problem which hitherto did not exist, as photography was previously so inaccessible, limited to the wealthy and the highly dedicated. However, with cameras now widely available, photographers must identify ways to define themselves to ensure that the title ‘photographer’ retains significance and is not rendered fundamentally axiomatic. 

In order to define themselves in new ways, and separate themselves from those who also have access to the same technology, photographers have begun intentionally drawing from previous art, in an intentionally curated lean towards postmodernism. In Documentary Fictions, Joan Fontcuberta (2014) approaches this, discussing that ‘contemporary artistic creation does indeed resort to quoting from and reflecting on a previous imaginary, and in doing so it takes as its material the records of experiences that predates us’ (pp.106). Fontcuberta (2014)  goes on to say that in recognition of this discourse, the medium of photography lies within the ‘post-modernist current, as opposed to the hegemonic discourse of photographic modernism’ (pp.106). We can see this whilst looking at work such as Rickard’s ‘A New American Picture’. In an attempt to push the boundaries of photography and create work of significance, he intentionally reinvents the ‘previous imaginary’, as opposed to attempting to ‘in platonic terms…leave the cave’ (Fontcuberta, 2014, pp.106) by avoiding and heavily drawing inspiration from work that has already been created. In Photography After Postmodernism: Barthes Stieglitz and The Art of Memory, Bates (2023) postulates how whilst it should be understood that ‘much art has traditionally been dependent on reference to other previous ‘texts’’ (p.12), the fundamental understanding of postmodernism is that ‘the reference was almost to anything other than art’ (p.12). This understanding of postmodernism is one which we can see being exercised in the modern photographical topography. Rickard draws from Google Street Maps, other photographers draw from, as Bates (2023) had recognised, ‘primarily popular culture’ (p.12). Bates references Cindy Sherman, who published a series of images titled ‘Untitled Film Stills’. He critiques this ‘semiotic game’, postulating how viewers of the image are directed towards a reference that references something else entirely. There is no immediate understandable reference towards a pre-existing piece of work or art, instead Bates (2023) compares it to ‘that sometimes dizzying experience of looking up a word in a dictionary, only to find its meaning referred to an equally unfamiliar word that you then have to look up, which in turn refers you to yet another unfamiliar term and so on’ (p.14). This is comparable to Rickard’s work, in which one must first be familiar with the idea of Google Street View. The subjects' faces are blurred and their identity is hidden as they turn to view the Google Car Camera, however these people lie in economically abandoned areas and the work references something bigger -  the deception of the American Dream. Rickards work contains a horde of intertextual references that combine to create a bigger picture of both a new technological movement within photography but also the American Dream. It is this intentionally curated lean towards postmodernism that is the result of the democratisation of cameras and their integration within common life. Bates (2023) cites the work of Jean-François Lyotard (1991), who in his book The Inhuman: Reflections on Time, suggests that

‘In the conflict surrounding the word communication, it is understood that the work, or at any rate anything which is received as art, induces a feeling – before inducing an understanding – which, constitutively and therefore immediately, is universally communicable, by definition. …This, in my view, is what governs our problematic of ‘new technologies and art’, or, put differently, ‘art and postmodernity’’. 

This is the ‘semiotic game’ that postmodernism plays, of which it requires an excess of intertextual understanding. The oversaturation of imagery has led to this game being played amongst photographers who wish to separate themselves. 

Conclusion

The purpose of this essay was to investigate how the ubiquity of photography, and the democratisation of cameras, has affected the medium. It is important to be aware of how the medium of photography is changing - not only so that we can better understand how to approach producing photographic work, but also to contribute to having a deeper understanding of the societal shifts we are seeing regarding the accessibility of cameras. Through examining literature, this essay has explored the axiom of the photographic title and the didacticism of imagery in the modern world, truth within photography and the effects of citizen journalism, and the lean towards postmodernism within the medium. Together, these effects form insight into the changing topography of photography, and provide a better cognizance of how the medium has changed thus far, and what we can anticipate for the future of the medium. As argued by Sontag (1977), ‘photography is not practised by most people as an art’ (pp.8), which gives reason as to why it is important we are aware of how photography is changing. As the photographic medium is no longer ‘the toy of the clever, the wealthy, and the obsessed’ (pp., we must pay attention most greatly to how it affects wider society. Photography now has a much broader impact on the news and media. Through the democratisation of cameras we are seeing more awareness surrounding the truthfulness of imagery. Citizen journalism has enabled the self-documentation of news and events, and mass media travels faster than before. Future studies must look towards the cultural implications of citizen journalism, a prominence we are seeing increasingly on social media. This will provide further insight into the effects of the democratisation of cameras. 

References

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Fontcuberta, J. (2014) Pandora's Camera. Barcelona: Mack, pp.105-111

The New Yorker (2012) Available from: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/doug-rickards-street-view [Accessed 1st December 2024]

Bate, D. (2023) Photography After Postmodernism: Barthes, Stieglitz and the Art of Memory. Oxon: Routledge, pp.11-26

Aldaihani, Y. and Shin, J.H. (2022) The Emerald Handbook of Computer-mediated Communication and Social Media [online]. : Emerald Publishing Limited. [Accessed 29 December 2024] (pp.233–249)

Cole, T. (2016) Available From: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/magazine/a-too-perfect-picture.html [Accessed 1st December]

Kuhn, A. (1991) 'Remembrance’. In Spence, J. and Holland, P. (eds) Family Snaps, London: Virago, pp.395-401

Campany, D. (2006) Available from: https://davidcampany.com/7910-2/ [Accessed 1st November]

Hubbard, G.G. (1892) The National Geographic Magazine. Washington: The National Geographic Society

McCurry, S (1984) Afghan Girl [Photograph]. In National Geographic [Online]. Available from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/afghan-girl-home-afghanistan [Accessed 31st December 2024]

Anon (1922) Waiting For the President [Photograph] In Library of Congress [Online]. Available from: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002712420/ [Accessed 1st January 2025]

Sherman, C. (1978) Untitled Film Still #21 [Photograph]. In Bate, D. (2023) Photography after Postmodernism: Barthes, Stieglitz and the Art of Memory. Oxon: Routledge