A constructed version of the self - I've been thinking about this in response to my post about photos creating authenticity.

Yes, photos do create a sense of authenticity, but what role does our ability to regulate the photos we're tagged in play.

As i mentioned in my last post, I went to a Hen's Party last weekend. The bride's mother had a camera and was 'recording' the event, she snapped photos of us at the sophisticated high tea in the afternoon, in front of the Stretch Hummer, having drinks on our way to the city inside the Hummer, while waiting outside the dance studio for our lesson, during the lesson, at the bar after the lesson etc. You get the idea, throughout the night, photos were taken. 

But fast-forward to Monday morning when i was on my way to uni and the notification came up "Kirsty Smith added 22 photos of you." Suddenly i was anxious. What were the photos of? Were they of me respectably sipping champagne at the high tea or slightly tipsy with a leg looped around a pole at the pole dancing class? I was on edge as my train entered a tunnel and i was unable to view the photographs now contributing to my online identity. I wasn't ashamed of my involvement in the pole dancing class, but i still didn't want all my Facebook friends thinking that was an accurate representation of me. 

My day progressed, back-to-back classes and meetings and before i knew it i was at home and had been unable to regulate my online profile. As i sat down on Facebook in the early hours of the morning to see which photos had been taken, a notification came up.

A church friend had seen the photos and commented. I immediately took down the photo which presented me playfully lifting the tip of my dress up. Then the same friend posted on my wall. 

I had regulated my photos, i had removed a tag from the photo to disallow my Facebook friends to see the photo. I had effectively, altered a version of my self. In reality i was enjoying myself, having a laugh with friends at a pole dancing studio, but online i had removed the record of that. 

My Facebook photos are a representation of who i am. I removed the tag of a photo that i thought lowered my sense of self. I was constructing my identity. 

I wonder how often people do this, i wonder how often i do this without realising. Removing photos of me looking awkward, removing photos of me in social situations that others could perceive me as something other than where i want to be seen. Where once we didn't remove a photo from the developers envelope and frame it, now we remove any record of it, or just any ability for people we care about seeing it. 

The humble photograph: Creating authenticitity.

The internet has created a new realm of identity, in the same way that one would limit how much they share in a social setting, an online presence now enables individuals to regulate how much they share or even what they share. In addition, social networking sites with the ability to create a profile page, select profile photos and share interests, mark their visits to physical locations, share their thoughts through 'status updates' etc. all contribute to this constructed version of self. But what role do those photos have? 

Anna, i love that quote: "We don't trust words because they're words, but we trust pictures because they're pictures. That's crazy," because it's totally true. I file through Twitter and Facebook reading status updates or even see the attendance marked on events, i don't trust it. The human word can be broken. Nothing says "Sally Mitchem is now in a relationship with David Carlton" more than a photo of them lip locked at a recent party. Similarly nothing says, "Jennifer Pennington is now engaged to Jeremy Ponsonby" more than a photo of Jen's engagement ring. We trust photos, it gives tangibility to a scene or a situation. 

For example, a quick scroll through my Facebook page can tell the audience a few things: 

•  I'm organising a Christian conference. 

• I love Instagram.

• I went to a Hen's Party last weekend. 

The reason why i think this is interesting is because a profile page creates an identity - it's a record of who i am, what i do and what i think. Without photos, is any of that legitimate?

I could post a status saying i'm at the front of a moshpit starring right into the eyes of my favourite artist OR i could post a photo taken on my phone showing that i'm actually right there. Which one would you trust more? Me? The photo, for sure. 

Photos have this sense of authenticitity to them. 

Trusting pictures because they're pictures

Every day, in my Facebook news feed, I'll see countless photos: from Instagrammed shots of mouth-watering dinners, to new profile and cover pictures, and of course, multiple albums posted by friends seemingly just to make me jealous (hint to my Facebook friends: stop uploading albums entitled 'Europe Summer 2012 YAY!' and posting them to all your Aussie friends in the middle of winter.) 

I see these photos every day, but hardly ever do I stop to question them. Wow, that dinner looks amazing, I think to myself, cursing my dad's specialty of pasta-with-sauce-from-a-packet; but it doesn't often occur to me that without the Instagram filters, it probably wouldn't be that special. Wow, she looks like a model in that profile picture, I think to myself, vowing to increase my diet and exercise levels tenfold, and ignoring the clear influence of photoshop on the image. And although I know from personal experience that awesome holiday photos don't always accurately reflect how much you're enjoying a trip, it's easy to forget this when I'm huddled under four blankets scrolling through photos of my friends island hopping around the Mediterranean. 

"We don't trust words because they're words, but we trust pictures because they're pictures. That's crazy."

The tendency for people to view photographs as accurate representations of reality is discussed by Scott Rosenberg in this 2009 article. Rosenberg quotes documentary photographer Pedro Meyer, who says, "I think it's very important for people to realise that images are not a representation of reality."Why does he say this? Because images, just like words, can be manipulated. Images, just like words, are selective.  "We don't trust words because they're words," Meyer says, "but we trust pictures because they're pictures. That's crazy. It's our responsibility to investigate the truth, to approach images with care and caution."

I think this particularly rings true with the practice of image sharing across social networks. People share photos of their lives, or images of things they like, and this contributes to their online persona, a constructed version of the self. We don't post photos of ourselves when we're by ourselves, squashed on a train, upset after a long, hard day. We post photos of us having a great time with friends. We don't post pictures of our cluttered bedrooms or dirty streets. We post images of pretty objects and beautiful landscapes. Through images, we share certain things, and not others, to project a particular image of ourselves.

As a group, we're all really fascinated with this idea, and that's why, out of all our many ideas, we decided to narrow our project to this:

How is image sharing affecting/shaping/contributing to our sense of self? 

Through this blog, we're all going to go on individual image sharing journeys to explore this idea. Nicola is going to explore instagram; Mel will be exploring facebook and the profile pic, cover photo, and tagging; Paul will be looking at photo editing and sharing with iPhoto, Ash will be looking at mummy blogging and how many babies born today will have photos all over the internet of them at all ages by the time they're our age; and I'll be taking a little journey into the wonderful world of tumblr. But for now, goodnight! 

Feature Ideas

So if Ash's post didn't make it clear, we've decided our overall topic will be exploring the idea of the visual web. This is a massive topic however, so we need to narrow it down into a feature question. So this is a post for us all to post some ideas for questions, and hopefully within a week we'll come up with an idea with a bit more direction! 

Ideas: 

• How is the rise of the visual web giving a voice to the disadvantaged and marginalised? 
• What are the privacy implications of a visual web? 
• Is the visual web a result of a generation with decreasing attention spans? 
• How does the visual web enable the creation of a legitimate online persona? 
• How is image sharing shaping our online identities and overall sense of self?