i loved the last quote about the illusion of community while identifying as someone who does not like participating in society!! This was a really fun read
This was so well written and thought provoking! It's like, simulating fun through photographs and people saying that's not real fun but during the sad girl era, you're telling people you're so deeply sad and people don't believe you either, it's like social media as changed our perceptions of emotion?
This has been my philosophy for taking random photos for years now, in fact since my Tumblr days: I was here, I exist, I see this benign thing and went outside today and witnessed the pieces of life that make us most human. I see “partying” much the same way, why do people always have to jump to assuming the negatuve, escapism, drug-fuelled messiness that is depicted in films. Maybe technology has already irrevocably degraded our sense of reality cause most people don’t even do that every Friday and never did. Even Gen X. The most simple things can make up a party: someone brings a speaker and some drinks (alc or not), potluck some food, some cameras and good conversation with good friends in someone’s rented apartment.
This current generation’s bragging about not going outside and living fully will have consequences I think. Socialization is key, and everybody can’t be an introvert.
needed this (lol)! I took a class last year that was all about Barthes “the photograph as death” and afterwards I fell into photography pessimism despite the fact that I love to take photos and feel like there is something I am capturing and not just freezing — this makes me feel like we can reconcile the two <3
Recently I felt like printing out some of the recent photographs I have taken of my friends and sending them or giving them an envelope with a couple of them. I want to take pictures with and of my friends and me but I don’t want them to be for and on social media.
At the moment I can’t see the reason why I should post them on social media (I used to). And neither should they rot somewhere. Taking photos is social and they connect us with people in the moment of being photographed and later when looking at the photos. They connect us to the self we were and are. If we are talking about photographs like the one at the end of this essay then I think that self seen and connected to is only true if the photograph has to do nothing more than to exist and be looked at by the people in the photograph and the photographer.
Has the growing want and motivation to create actual physical community reached my habits of taking, sharing and looking at personal photographs?
And, finally, I really enjoyed how you connected and related cinema, pop culture and theory to each other!
I’m not making a new point by pointing out that the obsession with taking the “perfect picture” is potentially problematic, but I have noticed a new social media archetype:
The girl that can’t have fun without taking the perfect picture first. (I’m not even getting into the implied misogyny of the self obsessed, shallow girl)
The only way this archetype is even able to exist is because of the accessibility and abundance of pictures, that has come with the invention of smartphones.
I agree with getting your picture taken being a nice gesture, a loving one even, but I do wonder- where is the line?
When does getting your picture taken start being stressful? When does the pressure come in? Is it all our phones’ and social media’s fault?
Great read! I recently took up film photography and it has completely reinvigorated the joy of capturing photos for me. I think most things could use a little more specialness about them, a little more ritual, to remind us why what we’re doing is important to begin with. Friends and family get excited when you pull out a physical photo album to revisit memories you had together, and everyone gets to feel seen all over again. It can turn a private hobby into a communal activity.
i feel the digital camera (not a phone) is a good intermediary between the urge to get photos developed and to also wish to post them on Instagram. I have been wanting to get a digital camera for awhile (despite not being a big party girl) just to document my senior year of highschool. i feel using my phone is just... wrong for this occasion. yes, i use my phone ALL THE TIME, but it's for communication and reading. A digital camera requires effort and that's important. Especially for documenting my life, more effort is key to prevent me documenting every arbitrary thing, rather i document what really matters.
What a great read!!! It’s so relevant to what I’ve been thinking about, having grown up with instagram and the constant picture taking for social media, then rejecting it and only recently coming back to photography but with a different purpose. To me the shift was developing my favourite pictures from all those years and putting them in an actual album. From then on I was taking pictures to have a snapshot of those memories to look back at myself, without the thought of social media, so I became less critical of how I looked in the picture of whether the composition was just right. Also switching back to an actual digital camera rather than taking out my phone has helped, phone cameras for me and my friends have the association with social media, it can be seconds between the flash and you being up on someone’s story without having been asked if you’d want that or even seeing the picture yourself. With a digital camera it’s easier for people to trust I only want to save the memory for myself and their insecurities won’t be floating around ig for the next 24h at best and forever at worst.
Wow, I did not think that one hour photo, brat summer, and susan sontag could be written in the same essay as much as saying it in a sentence. I love how the way it's written and how well each subjects ties in together. I am so new to Substack but reading these blogs really helps me learn and gain new perspectives on different things, especially in the world of movies, culture, entertainment...
i loved the last quote about the illusion of community while identifying as someone who does not like participating in society!! This was a really fun read
This was so well written and thought provoking! It's like, simulating fun through photographs and people saying that's not real fun but during the sad girl era, you're telling people you're so deeply sad and people don't believe you either, it's like social media as changed our perceptions of emotion?
This has been my philosophy for taking random photos for years now, in fact since my Tumblr days: I was here, I exist, I see this benign thing and went outside today and witnessed the pieces of life that make us most human. I see “partying” much the same way, why do people always have to jump to assuming the negatuve, escapism, drug-fuelled messiness that is depicted in films. Maybe technology has already irrevocably degraded our sense of reality cause most people don’t even do that every Friday and never did. Even Gen X. The most simple things can make up a party: someone brings a speaker and some drinks (alc or not), potluck some food, some cameras and good conversation with good friends in someone’s rented apartment.
This current generation’s bragging about not going outside and living fully will have consequences I think. Socialization is key, and everybody can’t be an introvert.
needed this (lol)! I took a class last year that was all about Barthes “the photograph as death” and afterwards I fell into photography pessimism despite the fact that I love to take photos and feel like there is something I am capturing and not just freezing — this makes me feel like we can reconcile the two <3
Recently I felt like printing out some of the recent photographs I have taken of my friends and sending them or giving them an envelope with a couple of them. I want to take pictures with and of my friends and me but I don’t want them to be for and on social media.
At the moment I can’t see the reason why I should post them on social media (I used to). And neither should they rot somewhere. Taking photos is social and they connect us with people in the moment of being photographed and later when looking at the photos. They connect us to the self we were and are. If we are talking about photographs like the one at the end of this essay then I think that self seen and connected to is only true if the photograph has to do nothing more than to exist and be looked at by the people in the photograph and the photographer.
Has the growing want and motivation to create actual physical community reached my habits of taking, sharing and looking at personal photographs?
And, finally, I really enjoyed how you connected and related cinema, pop culture and theory to each other!
I’m not making a new point by pointing out that the obsession with taking the “perfect picture” is potentially problematic, but I have noticed a new social media archetype:
The girl that can’t have fun without taking the perfect picture first. (I’m not even getting into the implied misogyny of the self obsessed, shallow girl)
The only way this archetype is even able to exist is because of the accessibility and abundance of pictures, that has come with the invention of smartphones.
I agree with getting your picture taken being a nice gesture, a loving one even, but I do wonder- where is the line?
When does getting your picture taken start being stressful? When does the pressure come in? Is it all our phones’ and social media’s fault?
Great read! I recently took up film photography and it has completely reinvigorated the joy of capturing photos for me. I think most things could use a little more specialness about them, a little more ritual, to remind us why what we’re doing is important to begin with. Friends and family get excited when you pull out a physical photo album to revisit memories you had together, and everyone gets to feel seen all over again. It can turn a private hobby into a communal activity.
i feel the digital camera (not a phone) is a good intermediary between the urge to get photos developed and to also wish to post them on Instagram. I have been wanting to get a digital camera for awhile (despite not being a big party girl) just to document my senior year of highschool. i feel using my phone is just... wrong for this occasion. yes, i use my phone ALL THE TIME, but it's for communication and reading. A digital camera requires effort and that's important. Especially for documenting my life, more effort is key to prevent me documenting every arbitrary thing, rather i document what really matters.
What a great read!!! It’s so relevant to what I’ve been thinking about, having grown up with instagram and the constant picture taking for social media, then rejecting it and only recently coming back to photography but with a different purpose. To me the shift was developing my favourite pictures from all those years and putting them in an actual album. From then on I was taking pictures to have a snapshot of those memories to look back at myself, without the thought of social media, so I became less critical of how I looked in the picture of whether the composition was just right. Also switching back to an actual digital camera rather than taking out my phone has helped, phone cameras for me and my friends have the association with social media, it can be seconds between the flash and you being up on someone’s story without having been asked if you’d want that or even seeing the picture yourself. With a digital camera it’s easier for people to trust I only want to save the memory for myself and their insecurities won’t be floating around ig for the next 24h at best and forever at worst.
Wait this is like. All of my things.
Real I clicked so fast
THE WAY YOU WRITE!!
Wow, I did not think that one hour photo, brat summer, and susan sontag could be written in the same essay as much as saying it in a sentence. I love how the way it's written and how well each subjects ties in together. I am so new to Substack but reading these blogs really helps me learn and gain new perspectives on different things, especially in the world of movies, culture, entertainment...
Thank you for reminding me of this movie & why I love it so much.
Omg you've activated a teen memory, I loved and was equally terrified by that movie!
Wow I did not expect to tear up while reading the last part…
this is so calming to read 🩷 your insights are beautiful