For more than a decade now, photoblogging has increasingly become a popular mainstream online activity. Today there are thousands of blogs dedicated to photography and a handful of read/write web services committed to photoblogging. Professionals and amateur photographers use the Internet in many ways, but the two most common facets of life online comes from creating social networks as well as displaying images to large audiences.
According to David Brooks of Shutterbug magazine, a weblog becomes a photoblog “when a photograph is substituted for a text message or part of a text message, as most photoblogs have some verbal content as well as pictures.”
I conducted a recent poll of 12 randomly selected Flickr members from my own Flickr contact list to help to expand and enrich our understanding of what photoblogging is and how people build participatory social networks through the Internet.
The Flickr members in this study can be described white and range in age from 18 to 60. One quarter were ages 18 – 24, while another quarter were ages 41 – 50. Half of the respondents were female and the majority of the group were college educated. In addition, a majority (66 percent) felt extremely comfortable with digital technology. Further half the group said they use point and shoot digital cameras while the remainder uses DSLRs. Only one member still uses film.
Defining Photoblogging
The respondents in this non-generalized study all pretty
much agree that photoblogging to varying degrees uses blog technology
to publish pictures instead of words.
As one respondent suggests, photoblogging “Is a great way to let someone peek into your life and what surrounds it. I love looking at photoblogs of people living in other cities or countries where they're showing the small details of everyday life. The designs on fence posts, the way their mailboxes look, trees, sunsets, people walking streets shopping.. etc etc.. News and magazines can only show you so much, but with photoblogs you get a more intimate view of outside your bubble.”
Another respondent defines photoblogging as "An
aberration from traditional blogging (if blogging is old enough to
establish traditions) in that although it is still conversing on a
routine basis with strangers and friends via a web interface
(blogging), the primary distinction being the use of visual images
shared as the essence of the conversation. Images are worth a thousand
words as the axiom goes is at the heart of photoblogging.”
As one photographer notes, “Photoblogging can take many forms, but I define it as using blog technology to publish pictures instead of words. Even if you use words, pictures are you main focus. Pure photoblogging uses just images.”
For Alan Levine, “Blogs are easy to use web publishing tools that allow anyone to create chronologically organized web sites (usually narrowly labeled as "diaries") with built in search and comment features. They are template driven and usually offer a series of well designed layout displays, that can be customized by those with the skills and interest to so.”
Social Connections
As Brooks observes, “Even though the social connection is an obvious and significant motivation, peppered among the snapshots of myriad faces are many, many interesting images which comprise a nonverbal dialog depicting many different, individually experienced worlds, a kind of graphic, off-the-cuff poetry in often abstract colors and shapes, sometimes humorous, cynical, wondrous, or melancholy. It reflects not just the diversity of people in the world, but a plurality of different worlds of experience, thoughts, and feelings.”
The social connections photographers make online through
digital photography is doing more for the craft, not to mention the
industry, than any other singular advance since George Eastman
introduced the Kodak camera in the 1880s. This assumption, albeit a bit
grand, suggests that the ease of the digital camera and the read/write
web, like the Kodak before them, seem to be closing the gap between
amateurs and professionals. Eastman’s strategy was to make photography
accessible to those people interested in recording life moments that
would otherwise require a professional. In the information/relationship
age photoblogging, along with photo storage and sharing sites like
Flickr, Photobucket, Ofoto, and Shutterfly, changing the way people
make, share, and collect images. Although photoblogging may not be for
everyone, Eastman’s mantra, 'you press the button, we do the rest,'
seems to resonate in a digitally mediated world.
In terms of social networking, one photographer comments,
“I participate in a number of "groups" related to photography. These
groups include a general discussion site (utata.org) and numerous
flickr groups that address specific aspects of photography. (technical,
style, subject). There are individual photographers I admire, and visit
with regularity to follow there work. We will comment on each others
photos but the discourse is almost invariably photography related. I
have not met any individuals in the online community personally
although I know such "meet-ups" do occur.”
Pros and Cons
When asked about the advantages and disadvantages of photoblogging, respondents expressed a range of attitudes. One photographer finds photoblogging satisfying because “you get feedback and can share what you're doing with others.” Another said, “With photography you can discover again your own environment, posting it on Internet gives you the opportunity to share your discoveries and learn from others.” For a third respondent, “The primary advantage is that it is a creative outlet and that having the thing forces me to shoot more often.”
Another value of photoblogging seems to come from how people learn from one another online. “I get email from all over the world. People ask me questions about different things and share experiences,” one photographer said. In addition, photobloggers set up special interest groups to share information about their work and experiences. Other photographers feel that photoblogging is a source of motivation to publish and gain exposure. As one photographer observes, photoblogging “is a motivator. [It]… keeps me going out for walks and shooting. It is a journal of sorts for me...logs my moods and perspective... “
“You see what people like… browse and see what you like in others' photos, and learn from that.” Ultimately, for this respondent, photoblogging “…is fascinating people watching (the psychologist in me).”
As one photographer notes, “A disadvantage may be the addictive quality of wanting to see just one more image before bed...just one more...It is a real time consuming activity.” Another expresses the concern, “On the down side, I feel like I have to post frequently and sometimes I feel pressured just to put something up, anything at all, if I have not posted in a few days. I also feel like I need to keep taking pictures all the time to help "feed the blog."
Beyond obvious concerns over copyright theft --- something that has plagued the Internet since its inception -- many photographers spoke about issues that appear more sociological in nature. For example, one respondent observes “Another disadvantage may be the culture of "praise" that pervades the photoblogging site I frequent (Flickr).
This may provide an undue confidence when looking at building photography skills.” In addition, another photographer notes, “The temptation to please the lowest common denominator of "crowd taste" is bigger if you use this type of software platform (comments in posts).” Moreover, as a third photographer mentions, “You tend to use the same layout as anybody else because of a number of factors (time, laziness, the customizations still involves to much code which is a deterrent for the uninitiated). - For some types of photo work, customized galleries are a better way to display (but once again the technical aspects of that route forbids it for the majority of people).”
In summary, photoblogging satisfies a person's need for exposure, establishes an online identity, provides feedback, and an excellent application of social networking. At the same time, respondents revealed several disadvantages including, copyright infringement, as well as the addictive quality of feeling the need to post images regularly.