Gen Z are forever being told to put their phone cameras down and live in the present. Little do they realise the impact their Instagram profiles could have on history.
The first selfie was captured by Robert Cornelius just over 184 years ago. At the time it was a slow and laborious process taking up to 15 minutes to capture. He used an old fashioned camera obscura, which today could be confused with a drawer. Fast forward to 2023 over 95 million selfies are taken globally in a day and 1.5 trillion photos are taken a year. In 1888, Louie Le Prince captured the first motion picture called The Roundhay Garden Scene. The silent two second clip was black and white and captured people simply walking in a garden. Today phones have the technology and storage to capture entire concerts. The vibrant colours and incredible audio is enough to make you feel like you’re really there experiencing it.
A stigma has arisen around the use of smartphone cameras, especially at events like these. It is common to see sarcastic comments under posts on social media. Noisey Vice posted a video of a concert captioned: “Not a person in sight, just phones living in the moment.” Whilst Matty Healy, lead singer of The 1975 told the crowd to ‘put your phones down.’ Despite the stigma around Generation Z’s use of photo and video, the power of its contribution to society cannot be underestimated. People today have an incredible opportunity to become the eagle eyes of democracy.
Thanks to smartphones people are always one click away from exposing an injustice. Following the murder of George Floyd it became evident that video enables the public to expose and hold those in positions of power accountable for their atrocities. In some societies it is much more difficult to do this via other means. Socio-political historian Daniel Doveton says: “In autocratic societies where democracy is non-existent, photography does help to counter the people in power, ordinary people can now expose what’s going on in a way that was not possible in the past, so I think these are extremely positive developments.”
Photos can also be used as a tool to quickly inform and educate people on social injustices. Research carried out by Professor Douglas R Vogel looked at how visual support affects the persuasiveness of a presentation. The results showed visual support made the presentations 43% more persuasive. Persecuted communities can use photos and videos to quickly alert and gain support from others. Currently this is something that has been very apparent as support has been raised for the victims of the war in Palestine, with atrocities commonly being recorded and shared through phones.
Ironically the casual nature of phone cameras has also led to people in power exposing their own wrongdoings. Daniel believes this was significant in the recent Partygate investigation: “People took photos for social purposes, which the police got their hands on in the investigation, leading to the end of Boris Johnson’s political career.”
People’s ability to shape democracy through photos is very important, however photos that capture the mundane shouldn’t be overlooked. Mainstream media outlets are focused on releasing images and videos that contain an element of shock. After all, bad news and entertainment is where the money is: “The trouble is a lot of the media is sensationalist.” Daniel adds: “Sometimes you need to make things extreme to make people sit up and take notice.” Why would anyone want to see boring news like what you ate for breakfast? Don’t be mistaken, photos and videos of the bad and the good news are vital to the functionality of our society; without the mundane news however this could be dangerous. Research Scholar Vishnu, K. J wrote an article in 2018 on the impact of bad news on the psyche. He wrote: “Stressing on negativity and conflict is affecting the mental health of the viewers.” Good and bad news has the potential to create an unrealistic version of reality. BeReal, an app where photos are posted of what you are doing at the moment of the notification, allows people to see a more accurate, refreshing perspective on how people really live. In order to prevent society from becoming overwhelmed by mainstream media, individuals have a responsibility to give a more balanced outlook on life.
Documentary photographers may feel concerned by the fact that most people have access to phone cameras. They don’t want their bodies of work to be seen in the same category as photos taken for BeReal. Photographer Harry Sweeney hopes his work will age well: “I hope that this kind of photography will continue to be appreciated in the future and not get grouped together with all the other random content.” This needs to be the case, photographers are skilled in knowing how to create impactful stories through their artistic voice, whilst people on BeReal are just capturing photos without a real creative end goal. The impact of photos taken by non photographers shouldn’t be undermined however. These have the potential to be more insightful than photos taken by professionals as they have a much deeper understanding of their own life experiences.
Last summer The National Portrait Gallery hosted Paul McCartney’s Eyes of the Storm exhibition . People were initially sceptical, considering McCartney isn’t known for his photography and the ticket cost £22. The Week magazine wrote: “His attempts to emulate the professional photographers he mixed with, using “unusual framing” and “moody lighting”, only help to highlight his deficiencies.” Despite this those who paid out left with a different perspective on photography. As the Week said, the photos weren’t the most awe-inspiring visual pieces. What made this exhibition successful was its ability to allow us into a world so distant from reality. Previously unseen photos of fans chasing a car from the perspective of a celebrity. This is why the photos people take are so important as although their mundane day to day lives may not match Paul McCartney’s Rockstar lifestyle, photos of our most boring days will mature and potentially become insightful to future generations. #
Jacob Turnbull, a photographer based in Liverpool recently documented a village in the Peak District called Edale. As part of the project he gave digital cameras to people living there to gain a more insightful perspective into what life is like. He says: “ It helps to present the tight knit community and the sense of togetherness, particularly Al’s photos taken of everyone working on a film together, which was followed by dinner.” This is why photographers shouldn’t fear the prospect of a population who have easy access to phone cameras. It should instead be seen as an opportunity for photographers to have deeper and more collaborative conversations with their subjects. This leads to a more engaging and informative experience for the viewer.
Daniel believes photography becoming more accessible helps society:
“A long time ago photography was a very elite profession which was limited to the perspective of a very small number of people. Typically white middle class men. Now it’s much more widespread, which broadens the way we see the world, opening us up to many new cultures and experiences.”
As photos and videos grow older they reinvent themselves and gain new meanings. They are a time capsule showing what life used to be. The historian explains they have an opportunity to play a big role in not just recording but also storing and preserving their images in safe hard drives:
“It’s down to individuals to ensure their photos and videos are secure and can be used by future generations. Photos are important for future historians, when you look at history documentaries they rely on photos and videos to bring it to life, without them we can’t accurately visualise anything.”
Rather than being mocked, the ‘selfie generation’ deserves respect for their devotion to documentation. They will feed future generations with an unprecedented insight into a period of time like no other thanks to their incredible archive of photos and videos. While people have already seen how this media can impact democracy, human rights and justice we are yet to fully understand how this body of work, although individually insignificant, could as a collective, play a revolutionary role in the progression of the human race.