Ubiquitous Photography

"Something that is ever present and everywhere..."

Photograph-based social media platforms - sharing photos can lead to connective and collective memory.

Flikr - instrument to shaped views of the world.
Shared pictures = sharing experiences, life stories.
In the past, photographs would have been shared by passing prints around families and friends, so photographic social networking sites create personal connections between users.

Penelope Umbrico - works with 'found photos' from sites such as Flikr. She compiles them into one installation to compare aesthetics. Installation of sunsets from Flikr now 21,887,750 images strong.

Erica Scourti - works with online blogging. Contacted people to set up a creative exchange, encouraging people to share their photos with captions.

Joachim Schmid - German found photography artist. Wanted to document shifts in the age of digital photography. Published a book of 'other people photography', exploring patterns and themes. Analyses Flikr as a culture of creativity.

Discussions - How do these media platforms act? They work as a development of passing around prints of photographs between your relations - they expand your social circle and allow people to share photographs with people on the other side of the planet. Uploading photos of universal events such as sunsets encourages connectivity by sharing an image of an event that happens all over the world: an image that everyone knows and recognises as a sunset, but knowing that it was taken thousands of miles away brings you closer to that photographer.