Why Do We Take Pictures?
When we think of photography, we often only think about the procedure of pressing a button, capturing a moment and saving it for the chance of returning to the moment afterward. However, in order to fully understand why and what for we actually are taking pictures, we have to dive a bit deeper. This explainer discusses the different reasons we take pictures and how it has changed in the past years.
It has been recognized, that since the invention of photography, people have been taking pictures for very similar reasons. Traditionally these reasons can be grouped into togetherness, identity, and memory.
Taking pictures enhances our feeling of togetherness. By taking a picture with someone, we communicate that for some reason, this person is significant to me. The feeling of being connected to the person enhances, boosting the feeling of togetherness.
Our pictures also build our identity. In the pictures we take and show of ourselves, we show maybe the version of ourselves that we want others to see, or maybe things we are interested in. The pictures in a way describe who we are.
The third basic reason for taking pictures is saving a memory. We take pictures of the moments and people we want to remember. We make photo albums and frame pictures to walls or go through old pictures in our phones to go back to memorable moments.
Can you recognize how this picture communicates togetherness, identity, and memory?
These basic reasons for taking pictures can still be recognized in the modern world. Nearly all the people in developed countries take pictures and find it important, and one reason for this lies in these three basic reasons. However, also new reasons for taking pictures have arisen. The background for this lies in the change in photographing that has happened in the past years.
If 20 years ago you took a picture with your camera, you usually chose carefully the moments you wanted to capture. Family occasions, portraits or holiday pictures maybe? In your camera there maybe was enough film for 50 or 100 pictures, and after filling the space you would take the pictures to a store for developing. In order to take a picture, you’d have to take an extra item, a camera, with you. For this reason, the moments for taking a photo were chosen carefully.
Nowadays taking pictures is a lot easier. We have cameras on our phones and we keep them with us every day. There is space for hundreds of pictures, and you don’t necessarily have to move them away from your phone. You can immediately see what kind of a picture you took, and if you take a bad photo, there is no problem in taking another one. You can check the pictures instantly, move them around and always keep them with you. Thanks to the developed technology, our barriers to taking a picture have decreased. This has brought new functions and reasons for taking pictures.
We still take pictures to memorize certain moments or aspects. However, due to the easiness of photographing, people can use pictures to memorize more mundane things than before. Do you maybe remember taking a picture of a loyalty card or a shopping list to avoid carrying extra stuff? In cases such as these, pictures might serve an entirely new purpose, such as a way to take notes or to substitute carrying a physical object. You also might have used your camera as a mirror or taken a picture of your rental car before the usage to proof the cratches on the side weren’t made by you? In these situations, the reason for taking a picture is achieving a very concrete function.
As a contradiction to the old reasons, some pictures are even meant to be forgotten. Instead of memories, they describe our present. For example, perhaps you have sometimes sent your friend a picture of your lunch, just to show what you are eating right now? These kinds of pictures might fill our phone’s photo albums and are probably never returned to, finally maybe deleted. Also, services such as Snapchat make it possible to share what you are currently doing without saving the picture or having the possibility of a return to it. In these cases, we take photographs even to communicate.
Social Media has made our pictures even a stronger part of our identity building. Our pictures can be seen by a wider audience than ever, as we share them to be seen by our online communities. We might have a thousand pictures in our photo albums, taken with a very low barrier, but we still decide very carefully which ones we want to share with others. We think carefully what kind of image we give of ourselves to others, and build our identity on social media by posting only certain kinds of pictures on there. We build our social status by showing how great our lives are and build our self-confidence by collecting “likes” to our pictures from our network.
The list of new functions only goes on. In addition to describing our present, communication, and concrete functions, there must be many other reasons for taking pictures. And new ones arise constantly, as the technology and creativity related to photographing evolves. What is interesting to notice, after all this change, the old reasons for taking pictures still exist among the new ones. And even though photography must change in the future in many ways, I believe that people will also in the future use it for the search of togetherness, identity and memories.
Based on a lecture on Social Photography by Risto Sarvas on 21.9.2019.
