Evolution of Digital Photography Facilitated by Technological, Social and Cultural Transformation
Essay One: Annotated Bibliographic Analysis
Van Dijck, J 2008, ‘Digital Photography: Communication, Identity, Memory’, Visual
Communication, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 57-76.
In this article Van Dijck discusses how recent technological, social, and cultural transformations have facilitated an evolution in the role of digital photography, commenting on the increasing need for an individual to form a sense of self-identity and to communicate within a public sphere. He argues that memory still reappears as an important function within personal photography, if not remaining its core function, despite these trends. The article takes a comparative approach, beginning with a review on the use of photography in the analogue age as a means for sentimental remembering, before discussing how new digital technologies are used for shaping both identity and memory. Van Dijck does not believe that digital technologies have at all eliminated a camera’s ability to create and store memory, rather it ‘reappears’ instead in different forms through the broader distribution and virtual storage of digital photography in contemporary society. The article provides fresh and well-argued perspectives on identity formation with digital technologies, challenging existing arguments that claim digitization is causing the trend of increasing identity expression and communication in photography. Instead Van Dijck purports that the fusion of “photography with daily experience and communication” is the leading cause for this trend, presenting room for new discussion within literature on digital media usage. His exploration of concepts such as control and the idealised self are comprehensive and well referenced with a variety of sources, displaying a level of research and objective analysis that proves reliable. The article’s goal of analysing changes in personal photography is achieved through its detailed inspection of developments in the digital media environment, making it a
Van Dijck, J 2008, ‘Digital Photography: Communication, Identity, Memory’, Visual
Communication, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 57-76.
In this article Van Dijck discusses how recent technological, social, and cultural transformations have facilitated an evolution in the role of digital photography, commenting on the increasing need for an individual to form a sense of self-identity and to communicate within a public sphere. He argues that memory still reappears as an important function within personal photography, if not remaining its core function, despite these trends. The article takes a comparative approach, beginning with a review on the use of photography in the analogue age as a means for sentimental remembering, before discussing how new digital technologies are used for shaping both identity and memory. Van Dijck does not believe that digital technologies have at all eliminated a camera’s ability to create and store memory, rather it ‘reappears’ instead in different forms through the broader distribution and virtual storage of digital photography in contemporary society. The article provides fresh and well-argued perspectives on identity formation with digital technologies, challenging existing arguments that claim digitization is causing the trend of increasing identity expression and communication in photography. Instead Van Dijck purports that the fusion of “photography with daily experience and communication” is the leading cause for this trend, presenting room for new discussion within literature on digital media usage. His exploration of concepts such as control and the idealised self are comprehensive and well referenced with a variety of sources, displaying a level of research and objective analysis that proves reliable. The article’s goal of analysing changes in personal photography is achieved through its detailed inspection of developments in the digital media environment, making it a