Jurgenson argues that Social photographing can put instant moment into permanent tangible documentary, making our life collectable and making us more conscious on our life. He calls photos are nostalgia because the moment they recorded were past. He also puts a sadness mood relating the past moment to death.
His arguments make sense to me, all photos records only that moment that have already past. We desire the moment that had past away. However, I disagree to say that the moments are death, it is gone in time domain, but it is still in mind domain. If every past moment is considering dead, people will be killed by the guilt of wasting their time. I enjoy looking social life photos of past, it shouldn't be sad. I have to admit that I look my dogs photos often because I miss them. I have been more than two years away from home. I feel healed and happy when I look at the pictures of them when they were young and when they grew up. But don't feel lost. I some I think people take photos for recording the happiness of that moment, prevent it losing, and standing better memories. I am not saying it cannot be sad. If I look into my photos took with old friends, I will recall the past time and feel sad. In addition, I like his understanding about panoramic vision: "for the people doing the swiping, there is a more panoramic view of social life, akin to the montaged scenery from the train window" (pg.32). His has similar demonstration that "network audience motivates us to apprehend experience as documentable and promotes in us the perspective of the documentarian" (pg.37). Besides the montage, objective perspective, many social photos have short-life, being consumed and forgotten quickly. I remember seeing the same helpless words when brushing videos before: "the memory of the social media is short". It is so dammed right. I was reviewing my photos and collections. Then I found I do this a lot: "this is good, let's record or collected it for later learning or watching. Then it got moldy in my photo stream and favorites. I didn't remember it." Photos are the visual medium of communication, because the way people consuming them is too fast, the value of them are reducing. People throw them away so quickly, it is like looking the views outside a train window. It's hard for us to know the original idea of the photographer, but I believe some sober viewers can see whether these are reliable or fabricated, sincere expressing or show, or follow the trend like a copy machine.
I also feel that many videos and photos on the Internet are worthless. But they just have attention and traffic. I also found one thing, a person made a critical video. A group of people agree. Another group disagreed. Because the two sides quarreled. The volume of video reviews and views has soared. Some people draw experience from this matter. Create two opposite voices under your own works to induce the audience to quarrel. I feel sad about these phenomena on social platforms.
But I don't think the producer or the audience can be blamed. Because human nature and physiology are like this. For example, you see a bald rabbit running around in the street near your home. You think it's strange and interesting. The second time, you saw a group of bald rabbits running around in the street near your home. You were surprised and photographed it online. For the next few months, if you see these bald rabbits running around in the street every day, you won't feel interesting anymore. But on the Internet, your neighborhood will become a popular spot for "watching bald rabbits and taking pictures with rabbits in the street". People will look for new things that bring happiness and excitement, but the freshness of the interesting things they find is very short. And people always think from their own point of view. You will feel that these rabbits that affect traffic need to be managed. But those who have never seen the bolt rabbits, seeing your video online, thinking of your place as Alice's fairy tale world.
Thinking about the meaning of photographing, this week, I had a good action to test myself that is not to take a single photo. On Friday, I saw a dress in the laundry that looked like my roommate's. I photographed it for her. That doesn't count. I held on until Sunday. But when my metal sculpture was about finished, I couldn't help taking photos. There are some funny mistaken cuts, strange buildings of magnets for fixing the position, ugly welding, and polishing video. They are the funnest at the moment it happened, but if I look back it might remind me my unskillful at that time. Now I look the sculpture I made, I will recall how I racked my brains to burn the metal and bend it while it is hot. In contrast, the photos of it is more like myself want to share my creations.
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