Bea Twentyman

The advent of accessible photography has coincided with the implicit mainstreaming of social media. This of course, is not really a coincidence at all, as both have materialised through the rise of technology which has allowed for the mass intake of visuals on a daily basis, be that through adverts, Instagram posts, or photos we take on our phones. This has led, I would argue, to a general desensitisation to photography.

You open Instagram. You see a friend’s post. You like it. You scroll and repeat. And then, on Monday your weekly average screen time flashes up . You start the inevitable process of telling everyone you’re on a social media detox in sheer horror. By Tuesday you’ve caved. I think what instils the panic is that if you compared those hours on your phone to what you can actually remember looking at in that time, you’d probably come up laughably short. It’s not to say social media can’t be interesting and funny and informative, it’s just the sheer volume and accumulation that means for the most part, it isn’t adding a great deal to our lives.

With the rise of social media has come a shift in the focus of photography. In a world of selfies and influencers and facetune, we look more at ourselves than at the world around us. This obsession with appearance has cultivated a self-image society, where photos are used as a form of false presentation rather than a way of capturing real moments. The oversaturation of images means we don’t look at photos in the same way anymore. What once was a rare glimpse or capturing of a special or particularly beautiful moment is now a subconscious form of self-posturing.

I’ve possibly given social media a bad rap and it’s certainly not the crux of the issue because without cameras on phones none of this would be possible anyway. That everyone can take photos instantly has rendered photography more accessible but is also problematic in its own way. The notion that anyone can take a photo is reminiscent of the old adage that anyone can make art. You may be thinking, well, both those statements are true, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Of course, anyone can take a photo, in the same way that anyone can do a painting. What doesn’t necessarily follow is that this photo or painting will be any good . Suggesting everyone can take photographs is what has led to it being considered a so-called ‘soft’ subject. That is to say, it degrades the highly skilled and difficult discipline and training required to refine photography skills.

It’s not all bad though, because there’s clear evidence that we still want to appreciate good photography. Take any David Attenborough series for example. Its breath-taking visuals always spark a conversation and indeed provoke necessary discourse about environmental issues. Social media allows photography to have a pervasive socio-political impact in a way that wasn’t really possible a few decades ago. The return of film cameras reflects a maintained desire to have physical photographs rather than just those digitally stored on a nebulous cloud.

Whilst traditional photography is certainly a casualty of the mobile phone, it’s also impossible to conceive of it ever fully disappearing. In our post-pandemic world, I hope we hold onto the escape and solace found in nature during that uncertain time and take the opportunity to adopt a new skill on the way.