MAS110 Photo Essay for Major Assessment - by Caitlin McGarrell 43629482

1. The Photography of
Camera Phones:
How camera phones have changed
out perception of the photograph
By Caitlin McGarrell
43629482
MAS110

2. “To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s
mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this
moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless
melt” – Susan Sontag (2006)
At the beginning of photography, only the wealthy and
important could take photographs, and only the wealthy
and important could choose what photographs were
shared with the public. After the development of
technology and the evolution of photography, taking and
sharing photos is no longer limited to the wealthy. Susan
Sontag wrote that photography was a cultural practice,
and an evaluation of the world, and as our culture
becomes more individualised, so too does our view of
photography.
What different meanings can we find in a comparison of a
formal digital photograph and a photo taken with a
camera phone?

7. The element of the “everyday” is prominent. The photos
taken with a camera phone are not usually socially
significant, yet the personal and immediate qualities
prevent the deletion of certain camera phone
photographs.
These qualities provide a “Punctum” by creating a deeply
personal & emotional reaction.

12. Figure 1. Untitled 2014

16. Photography is even more so a social right - with the
camera phone, everyone becomes a photographer.
This provides a new means of which to report events,
provide more sides to a story, and more freedom.
These photographs compare the formal and objective
view of a political event, with a more immediate and
personal one, one that provides a subjective point of view.

19. Figure 2. Enough is Enough 2014

21. Figure 3. The future 2014

25. “Camera phones capture the more fleeting
and unexpected moments of surprise,
beauty and adoration in the
everyday” (Goggin 2012)

39. v Duckworth, K. (Photographer). 2014. Untitled
(Photograph). 8 February, 2014. from https://
www.facebook.com/LDParties?fref=photo
v Szilvasi, A. (Photographer). 2014. Enough is Enough
(Photograph). 18 May, 2014. from http://
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631714/Enough-Tens-
thousands-disgruntled-Australians-walked-city-streets-
opposition-Federal-Governments-budget-cuts.html
v Szilvasi, A. (Photographer). 2014. The future (Photograph).
18 May, 2014. from
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631714/
Enough-Tens-thousands-disgruntled-Australians-walked-
city-streets-opposition-Federal-Governments-budget-
cuts.html
Photographs

40. Academic Sources
v Goggin, G. (2012). Cell Phone Culture : Mobile Technology in
Everyday Life, e-book, accessed 04 June 2014, <http://
mqu.eblib.com.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=1020245>.
v Ito, M., Okabe, D., Matsuda, M. (2005). Personal, portable,
pedestrian: mobile phones in Japanese life/ edited by Mizuko Ito,
Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda. Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press.
v Kolb, L. (2008). Toys to tools: connecting student cell phones to
education. Eugene Or.: International Society for Technology
in Education.
v Lillie, J. (2012). Nokia’s MMS: A cultural analysis of
mobile picture messaging. New Media & Society, 14(1), 80-97.
doi:10.1177/1461444811410400

41. v Pink, S. (2012). Emplaced cartographies: reconceptualising camera
phone practices in an age of locative media. Media International
Australia Incorporating Culture & Policy, 1(145), 145-156. Retrieved
from http://multisearch.mq.edu.au/primo_library/libweb/action/
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tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=TN_informit9925120
88778630&indx=1&recIds=TN_informit992512088778630&recIdxs
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0)=Emplaced%20cartographies%3A%20reconceptualising
%20camera%20phone%20practices%20in%20an%20age%20of
%20locative%20media&vid=MQ
v Sontag, S. (2006). In Plato’s Cave. On Photography (pp. 3-24). New
York, Farrar: Straus and Giroux. Retrieved from http://
ishare.mq.edu.au/prod/integ/gen/90143de0-8475-49cc-954e-
e8698acfbd2e/1/
v Villi, M. (2010). Visual mobile communication: Camera phone photo
messages as ritual communication and mediated presence. Finland: ws
Bookwell Ltd. Retrieved from http://ishare.mq.edu.au/prod/file/
4516051d-1414-4b91-91b2-a23b4b58eead/1/v0487.pdf