An Authentic Narrative Through Pictures
By Nicole Clinkaberry
By Nicole Clinkaberry
The posting of
edited photographs on Instagram can be viewed as twisting the truth, but just
because someone uses a coffee tinted filter over a photo does not mean they are
not being authentic. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is quoted as saying
“… It’s part of our identity as people that we like something, but it also has
commercial value” (McNeill, 2012, p. 106.). Instagram allows an individual to
create their identity through pictures, albeit edited pictures in order to give
some kind of commercial appeal.
Photos’ capture
unique moments in life, so Instagram is a narrative of unique moments in the
users’ online identity. In this weeks’ lecture, there was a quote from The
Aboriginal Australians by Catherine and Ronald Brandt that said “Myths, songs
and stories were living archives…they held the key to physical survival” (van
Luyn, 2013). These authors were referring to Songlines but the same can be said
for Instagram and other online social networks. There is not a day that goes by
that I do not check my Instagram account and although I do not post every day,
I know of some people who post several times in one day. It is a physical need
to be socially interactive and that is made so much easier now, thanks to
online networking.
In the White Man
Got No Dreaming reading, the author interprets Dreaming as “…neither simply
illustrative nor simply explanatory; they are fanciful and poetic in content
because they are based on visionary and intuitive insights into mysteries…”
(Stanner, 1979, p. 30.). This description of an ancient narrative can translate
to the modern narrative of Instagram, in the way that these photos are
capturing a single moment and yet they are contributing to an entire identity.
The website photo.net
contains a timeline (Greenspun,
2007) in the history of photography. At first pictures were just shadows
produced on walls, through to 1861 when 7000 negatives were taken during the
civil war capturing life on the battlefield, and fast forward to today where
pictures are used as a narrative in the online world of Instagram. These
images, although edited, are truthful and convey the users’ likes and dislikes,
moments in life both joyful and sad, and create an authentic identity for
others to view and be a part of.
Reference
List
Greenspun, P.
(2007). History of photography timeline. Retrieved from http://www.photo.net/history/timeline
McNeill, L.
(2012). There is no “I” in network: Social networking sites and posthuman
auto-biography. Biography, 35(1),
101-118
Stanner, W.E.H.
(1979). The dreaming (1953), White man
got no dreaming: Essays 1938-1973 (pp.23-30). Canberra, Australia:
Australian National University Press
Van Luyn, A.
(2013). BA1002: Networks, narratives and
the making of place, week 4 notes. [Power Point]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
Image
Eclipse Camera [Image]. (2010). Retrieved from
http://www.photographica.nu
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