Tag: essay

Floppy disks, cassettes, CDs, and DVDs—data carriers that once embodied the promise of a modern future—are now primarily found in antique shops. Today, we rarely store our images on physical media; instead, we subscribe to cloud-based services, believing that we can access our memories anytime, anywhere. What do we lose by preserving our images as pixels? Where do photographs taken years ago disappear to—do they fade into oblivion? What exactly is the cloud, and what impact does it have on the environment?

Creating a photograph involves a range of factors. Many of these elude reflection at the moment of capture. The act of photographing is shaped by both conscious, cognitively grounded decisions and by intuitive impulses. After photographs are taken—whether during fieldwork, on commission, or in the studio—an equally complex process begins. Once the clearly flawed images have been discarded, a more deliberate selection follows. At this stage, the photograph’s fate is largely decided. It may remain a private memory, perhaps preserved in a family album, or enter the public sphere. Evaluating photographs, comparing them, and ultimately retaining the strongest images requires not only professional criteria but also individual considerations. The decision can be approached from artistic, aesthetic, and psychological perspectives. A more profound understanding of these factors may offer new insights, even into one’s own photographic practice and image selection methods.

Instagram’s visual culture is shaped by a simultaneous desire for authenticity and perfection. Filters, AI-generated faces, and the aesthetic logic of social media continually transform how we use images, continually redefining the place of portraiture and self-representation within contemporary visual culture. The stakes are not merely technical: how we present ourselves also reveals the collective image of humanity our society constructs.

For many decades, family photo albums have been one of the most important visual media for both personal and collective memory. Typically kept in a place of honor on bookshelves, displayed in cabinets, or stored in dresser drawers, these albums functioned as pictorial chronicles of family history and played a key role in shaping family identity. Today, however, they are gradually disappearing: family photographs have become immaterial through digital devices and platforms, resulting in a new relationship with memory, privacy, and the public sphere.

The question of defining the boundary between amateurs and professionals has been long present in the history of photography. The digital turn that emerged around the turn of the millennium fundamentally transformed this system of relations. Both the practice of image-making and the circulation of images became democratized, while the role of the photographer itself was reconfigured. At the same time, this transformation concerns not only technological change but also the redefinition of social representation, visual authority, and the cultural canon. It is therefore no coincidence that in an era in which virtually everyone produces images, it becomes necessary to repeatedly reconsider what the photographic profession actually means and where the boundary between amateurs and professionals should be drawn.