Ubiquitous Photography

The rise of digital photography and imaging has transformed the landscape of visual communication and culture. Events, activities, moments, objects and people are ‘captured’ and distributed as images on an unprecedented scale. Many of these are shared publicly, some remain private, others become intellectual property, and some have the potential to shape global events. In this timely and lively introduction, the ubiquity of photography is explored in relation to interdisciplinary debates about changes in the production, distribution and consumption of images in global information culture. The author examines shifts in image-making, storage, commodification and interpretation as highly significant processes of digitally mediated communication in an increasingly image-rich culture. It covers debates in the history and politics of image making and manipulation, and the current explosion in amateur photography, tagging and sharing via social networking, and citizen-journalism. This book engages with key contemporary theoretical issues such as memory and mobility, authorship and authenticity, immediacy and preservation.

Martin Hand is Associate Professor in the department of sociology at Queens University, Canada. His previous works include Making Digital Cultures: Access, Interactivity and Authenticity.