Rewriting the Zeitgeist of Amateur Photography

In thinking about the relationship between media and temporality, I was struck by the idea of how some media disrupt temporality through aesthetics rather than that technology. Of course, technology is the mechanism that allows the aesthetic forms to be rewritten and reapplied, but what makes that temporality more "visible" is in fact the aesthetic underpinnings. What fascinates me most is that in a visually dominated space like the internet, we rely on stylistic moves to determine when something was created. For example, when I see a website that has a bright neon background, numerous font colors, the use of Comic Sans and a reliance on long textual narratives, I assume the page was created in the late 1990s.

Yet, for this exercise, I want to focus on the aesthetics of digital photography, especially the use of programs like Instagram. With the advent of Instagram, suddenly using filters became an easy option for everyone, rather than just the photography savvy. Previously, people had to add a physical filter to their camera, whether with film or digital cameras. The other option was to manual adjust the photograph in a program like Photoshop. By using an app, anyone could determine the stylistic and aesthetic of their own photos. Apps like Hipstomatic could turn your photo into a Polaroid, without any of the coveted and disappearing Polaroid film. However, this shift also changed the "zeitgeist" of the photo. 

I use zeitgeist here because I think it gets close to the aesthetic moves that determine different photography of different decades. The grainy texture of a Polaroid has an "vintage" quality to it; whereas the over-saturated colors in a photograph felt like the amateur photos of the 1970s and 1980s. Of course, the content of a photo does contribute to its dating, but it can easily be overlooked or manipulated as well, depending on what the photo is actually showing.

For example, here's a landscape photo of Bolton Abbey taken by a Scottish friend of mine this past November:

By using Instagram, he has manipulated the photo to have certain colors saturated more; the perspective focuses on the abbey, rather than the trees, making them blurry in the process. These moves are reminiscent of landscape photography from the first half of the 20th century, particularly the colored photos of tourist sites. Removed from the context of Instagram, it would be difficult to date this photo, unless you had a trained eye. I couldn't find a picture of Bolton Abbey that was from the same vantage point, but this other photo was part of a local archives, dating from the midcentury:

Obviously, there are many differences, but Instagram has altered the first photo enough, that it no longer "feels" contemporary. Working in the opposite vein, you can also buy disposable cameras that overlay images and distort the photo's clarity, as if using an app like Instagram. This photo was taken at a friend's birthday party a few years ago by one of those cameras (and then posted online, adding a further layer):

Without knowing it, someone could easily see this and think it was run through one of the apps that alter the aesthetics of a photo. As Alan wrote in his article, "Friending the Past: The Sense of History and Social Computing", there is a certain cache in these kinds of aesthetic moves: 

     Consider, for instance, layer or mask techniques in Photoshop that at once take advantage of digital modularity and recall methods of physical media, thus      contributing their minute share to the immense cult (or guild) of cool by which designers today assert that they are culturally out of sync with corporatized      media. (4)

While these are the underpinnings for the professional, they also have morphed into the mainstream. Yet, if looking back upon these types of images will we still be able to tell what period they are from? Perhaps the aesthetic hybridity demonstrates the zeitgeist of the teens. Or perhaps we will have to find a new mechanism in order determine "time" outside of aesthetics.