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WHY DO WE PHOTOGRAPH

EVERYTHING?

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Bells behaviour may seemeccentric or excessive, but it is not amillion miles away from what manyof us are doing photographing moreextensively than ever before andsharing the results with the world onthe likes of Instagram, Facebook andTwitter. But whats our motivation?

The accessibility of digitaltechnology has helped to makephotography more popular andprevalent than at any time in history.If 2013 began for Bell puzzling overthe photographs taken of Obama at

his inauguration, itended with manyof us perplexedby the presidents

participationin a selfie atNelson Mandelasmemorial. Internetsearch giant Yahooestimates that this

year a mind-boggling 880 billionphotographs will be taken. Yet theincreased means to take photographscannot explain such figures alone,and the growth of online socialnetworking, both as a motivatingfactor to take pictures as well as amedium on which to share them, isarguably more significant. Figuresfrom Facebook reveal that over

200,000 pictures are uploaded to the

Why do we feel the need to photograph

our every movement? Because we

can may be one answer, as digital

technology gets ever simpler. But is

there something more to the selfies,

the band shots and the snaps of the big

night out, asks Michael Bonnet

Ge

on

Bell has been logging texts, receipts,

health data and more since 1998

Anythingyou do in your

non-digital lifebecomes anevent as soonas you post it.

I have a photo taken of theTV screen of the crowd at thepresidential inauguration ball, saysGordon Bell, a Microsoft researcher.Everyone in the audience is takinga kind of crappy picture lowresolution, low light to validatethey were there and show theirkids and colleagues. I could say Iattended too, by going to the web andfinding the same photo.

Bells message if youconcentrate on the recording, youmay miss the real content willresonate with those whove grownincreasingly exasperated by theubiquitous use of camera phones.So it may come as a surprise to learn

that the messenger is something ofa photography addict himself. Andthats putting it lightly.

Since 1998 the 79-year-oldcomputer scientist has been workingon a life-logging experiment,digitising and storing as many of hisexperiences as he can in an attemptto build a fully searchable archive.MyLifeBits includes every documentBell has ever read or produced, fromtext messages to shop receipts, amultitude of personal health data(including a record of his heartbeatsfrom his pacemaker) and, of course,pictures. Lots of pictures. Bell wears

a clip-on time-lapse camera, which

takes automated photographs ashe goes about his business. Hise-memory contains over 150,000 ofthese images.

My motivation is for memoryrecall and record keeping, says Bell,although the ambitions of Microsoftto find a commercial use for thepersonal data we are now able tocapture no doubt plays a significantpart.

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t some focus

itsocial networking site each minute,while one in every four of us nowuse some form of social media.

In 2010 German photographerWolfram Hahn persuaded a numberof Berliners to re-stage the profilepictures they had taken for socialmedia sites. These photographs, inHahns words, explored a tensionbetween the digital identity thatwill eventually allow the individualto be included within a broadcommunity, while at the same timeshut away at home.

Hahn believes that those active onsites such as Facebook experiencesocial pressures to take part in aphotographic culture. Anything you

do in your non-digital-life becomesan event as soon as you post it ina social network. In order to gainattention, you need to be constantlyposting and uploading things.

But how different is present daybehaviour like the selfie from whatwent before?

Going back a short while beforethe camera phone, digital camerascreated one of the defining poses ofour time arms stretched out, thephotographer peering through theviewfinder, half trying to control theworld, half trying to hold it at bay.

Elizabeth Edwards, professor of

photographic history at De Montfort

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University, Leicester, looks back evenfurther.

The self-image has alwaysaddressed a deep-seated need to stateand perform ones identity and evenexistence. One finds this in 19thcentury family photography, whichproduced a certain kind of socialicon that was exchanged amongstfamily and friends and often insertedinto albums alongside photographsof celebrities of the day.

Indeed, when we view todays

camera phone obsession from ahistorical perspective it begins tolook decidedly less exceptional.In the 1920s it was photo boothsthat were capturing the publicsimage and imagination; by the1970s Polaroid had taken over; andtoday, digital cameras are in theascendency. The common themerunning through all these inventions,

says Bell, isa desire to

achieveinstant

self-gratification throughphotography. The difference today isthat weve got better at it. No longerare we limited to 36 exposures whensnapping away, or required to travelto find a photo-booth. So long as wehave a smart phone and a Facebook

account we arecapable of beinga one-personphotographer,developer andpublisher and it

doesnt cost us apenny.

Thesedevelopmentshave transformed

the role of photography fromdepicting the past to conveying thepresent. As Edwards puts it: Inthe past photographs were aboutproducing social icons, preservinga likeness; they are now usedto connect the individual to theexperience of the moment at thisgig, or this party, with this person.

Michael Forrester, a Universityof Kent psychologist, believesthis pictures or it didnt happenmentality taps into peoplesconcerns with documenting thegood time they want to imaginethey are having, which in turn fuelsthe chronic desire some peoplehave with bringing out their phones.

There are those who worrythat by using photographs in thisway we are becoming reliant ontechnology and impairing our

ability to function without it. Arecent study by academics atFairfield University in the USclaims people remember fewerdetails about objects they havephotographed, compared withobjects they have not. Thissuggests that the traditional

use of photographs as an aidememoire may be inherentlyflawed.

Bell however isunperturbed. Perhapsunsurprisingly for a manwho has dedicated the last18 years to constructinghis own digital archive

Bell believes that thedistinction between our ownmemories and the technologythat supports them is becomingincreasingly arbitrary. Instead ofcontrasting the effectiveness ofthe man with the machine, Bell

thinks we should focus on the

David Cameron, Denmarks prime minister Helle ThorningSchmidt and Barack Obama pose for a selfie at NelsonMandelas memorial while Michelle Obama pretends not tonotice.Photo: AFP/Roberto Schmidt/Getty

The self-image hasalwaysaddressed

a need tostate onesidentity.

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combined performance of the man-machine system.

So where is the cult of the digitalcamera leading us, and is there anysign that our obsession with it isbeginning to wear off? One of theinteresting consequences of thedigitisation of music was that MP3proved a catalyst for the revivalof vinyl, with fans frustrated by adeterioration of sound quality andlamenting the loss of the physicalobject. But as yet there has beenlittle evidence of a regressive

photography movement. Never mindBox Brownies, digital SLR sales werereported to have fallen by 10-15 percent last year.

There has however been a backlashagainst some of the behaviourthat the new technology allows,perhaps put most clearly by the bandSavages, who issued the followingnote to fans in a bid to stop fans fromsuccumbing to the belief that theycouldnt possibly have been at thegig if they didnt have photos of it.

Our goal is to discover betterways of living and experiencingmusic. We believe that the use ofphones to film and take picturesduring a gig prevents all of us fromtotally immersing ourselves. Letsmake this evening special. Silenceyour phones.

Our addiction to taking andposting photos of everything wedo has led to the emergenceof apps like Snapchat,which is either fiendishlyclever or downright weird,depending on your view.

Were now savvyenough to know that ifwe leave our photos

up online, someone may takeadvantage of them and weleave ourselves open to missingout on that job interview orhaving to explain ourselvesto our partners and couldeven leave ourselves opento serious abuse. Ratherthough than deciding notto post the photos thatmake us vulnerable inthe first place, we nowhave an app that allowsus to fulfil our craving

for digital exhibitionism but only for a short while,before the images disappear as ifwell, as if theyd never been taken.

Perhaps its not so surprisingthat the man who wears anautomated camera that has takenover 150,000 pictures does not feelthat our infatuation with the camerahas reached its zenith. I think itis still building, says Bell. But atsome point people will say whatsthe point? since someone else willbe capturing the moment and youllbe able to get the image from theweb.

When that time is however,remains to be seen.

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