Susan Sontag - On Photography

What would any photography project be without mention of the famous or should I say infamous Susan Sontag's iconic photograph book On photography. Sontag's vicious opinions on photography are something I don't personally agree with she is always go for inspire a fight against her opinions . Below I have extracted some quotes from the first paragraph of her book alone . about the possession of photography and photographs ability to freeze time and moment which in my opinion a memory box also has the power to do . She says how to photograph somebody is to violate them , just imagine her thoughts and opinions on photographing them and them putting them in a private memory box ,she'd have a field day !
I actually like the way she says a photograph has the ability to imprison reality, memory boxes have the ability to preserve memory's , reality and time , light , space ect .


“To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as a camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.”

“Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality...One can't possess reality, one can possess images--one can't possess the present but one can possess the past.”

“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.”  

Dear Photograph

Dear Photograph is a website that I have come across that deals with memory ,photography and tradition becoming digital. It is an open site for anybody to post there "Dear Photograph" to share with the world. I was in tears reading through the comments and looking through the pictures people had posted , old photographs and nostalgic memory's can be so emotive and this website is a beautiful idea. Instead of sharing images on social media sights which I feel can be very impersonal these pictures are purposely taken to become digitalised and shared. The site simply states " Take a picture of a picture from the past in the present" and you have the option to upload your own image and look at others .There are recurrent themes that the same of a memory box such as childhood and death but looking through the site there is a uplifting undertone of family and experiences again much the same as a memory box.

Dear Photograph,Our Once Upon A Time began on Feb 16th, 2013…I remember this moment like it was yesterday. Beautiful, sunny day walking on the beach enjoying each others company. What would happen next, marked the beginning of an adventure I have always wanted to take and a story that we will forever hold dear to my hearts. This picture of a picture (taken exactly one year later in 2014), to us, is worth MORE than a thousand words. 
Love Always,
A girl who believes in “Happily Ever After”

Dear Photograph,
I miss the days when the dream to lace ‘em up in the blue and white was still alive.
Brandon

Dear Photograph,
Life seemed so simple in the days of black and white .
You were father of four daughters and loving it.
But time has a way of changing.
The car is gone, the dog is gone and you have been gone seven years now.
The only thing that is remaining are the mountains that you loved 
and the memories we hold near and dear to our hearts.
Loving and missing you still, your four daughters.
Till we meet again. -Clydene
(August 7, 1928 - April 15, 2007)

I have found an article on "Dear Photograph" on the observer website written by John Naughton. He speaks about the pros and cons of both "Dear Photography" and digitalising your photographs and memory's. Plus he ends his article with the same quote which I began so I bound to like it . This article and the time I have left on this project have got me thinking about concentrating my research and development further .I have briefly explored the digitalisation of our memory's but at this stage I really want to go back to tradition memory boxes , photography and physical keep sakes. I have plenty of time in future projects to explore digitalisation further but right now I want to focus on tradition. I have included extracts from the article.

 

Dear Photograph is a remarkable demonstration of the power of ordinary, humdrum photographs to evoke memories. Anyone who has ever found a shoebox of old prints in an attic will know this. They yield up images of ourselves when we were young, slender and innocent, of our parents with unlined, carefree expressions and unfurrowed, untroubled brows, of holidays once enjoyed, places once visited. Photographs freeze moments in time, reminding us of who we were – and, by implication, of who we have become.

But Dear Photograph is also a stark reminder of how threatened this power of photography has become. There is, for one thing, the brusque, matter-of-fact, upfront Terms and Conditions of the site. "When you submit your materials," it reads, "you grant dearphotograph.com a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use the work to be used, copied, sub-licenced, adapted, transmitted, distributed, published, displayed or otherwise under our discretion in any and all media". Or, to adapt the famous broken English internet meme, "all your memories are belong to us".

There's nothing new in this, of course. It also applies to the billions of photographs that have been posted to Facebook, under Terms and Conditions stipulating that "you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP Licence). This IP Licence ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it."

The other sobering thought triggered by Dear Photograph is that the site is only possible because of the relative permanence of analogue photography. The images on the site are, of course, digital, but they could only have been created using old photographic prints. All of which means that it will be very difficult to do something like this in 30 years' time.

The reason is that while digital technology has generally been very good for photography as a mass medium, it has also made the resulting imagery much more fragile and impermanent. Of the billions of photographs taken every year, the vast majority exist only as digital files on camera memory cards or on the hard drives of PCs and servers in the internet "cloud". In theory – given the right back-up regimes and long-term organisational arrangements – this means that they could, theoretically, endure for a long time. In practice, given the vulnerability of storage technology (all hard disks fail, eventually), the pace at which computing kit becomes obsolete and storage formats change, and the fact that most people's Facebook accounts die with them, the likelihood is that most of those billions of photographs will not long survive those who took them.

That's why Magnum photographer Martin Parr concluded his terrific piece last year on how to take better holiday photographs with a simple piece of advice: print your pictures. "We are in danger," he wrote, "of having a whole generation that has no family albums, because people just leave them on their computer, and then suddenly they will be deleted." He's right.

 

As I have previously mentioned there are 171 printed photographs in my memory box . I do not wish to upload them to the official site but I wanted to give the" dear Photograph" style of photography a try . Re-visiting past locations and also thinking about what the photograph means to me and possibly others. Looking through the images in my memory box this is a much bigger task that originally anticipated. As well as the means to the photograph I was also concentration on location and where was accessible for me to re-visit. Although I would very much like to I don't think taking a week off university would be practical to go and recreate a snapshot abroad !  So I am purposely restricting myself to images taken in my current home town of Morecambe and its surrounding areas.  

 

 

 

 Dear Photograph,

I was a member of a dance school for virtually the whole of my childhood / Teenage years

I left far too soon and quickly lost touch with them all

would love to re-unite and have a boogie

Sally .

 

 

 

Dear Photograph,

I live in the most beautiful place

and I am grateful everyday  

I indend to have many more pictures with many more people around the Eric Morecambe Statue

Sally.



Dear Photograph ,

When/ if i ever have children and they dislike there hair being brushed

Show them this picture

I did love my tommy Bomber jacket though.

Sally.



Are Facebook pages a digital representation of a memory box ?

I have noticed there has been a significant deterioration in the amount of objects I have collected and stored in my memory box recently . I have noticed that in the past 2-3 years very little has been deemed worthy enough to keep safe. There are plenty of reasons as to why this may be but I can help but notice that in the time iv stopped physically collecting memorabilia more activity has been logged on my social network Facebook page . Facebook introduced a new format in recent years called a timeline , every online member has one and it begins when you joined the page and documents every activity and puts it in order until the present . I joined Facebook in 2008 and I can click 2008 and see all my activity that year.


In my opinion Facebook has become a digitalised version of a memory box just more organised and doesn't use as much imagination . Facebook and other social media site are capable of storing images ,videos , private messages , public messages , locations , birthday wished , life events and much more . Instead of keeping things such as tickets to gigs or plane tickets ect it is already noted and a permanent fixture on my on line time line , private or public messages has virtually left hand written notes/ letters extinct and I never need to spend money printing images again . ( I still do , I love the physical quality's of a photograph) but you get the point . Below I have highlighted just a handful of activity's on my person Face book time line that could be linked back to things in a physical memory box. Some aspects of digital memory collecting is a positive things but others are just convenient .

Here is a status i posted about finishing my dissertation . I can now look through my time line and have a content reminder about the final few hurdles of my degree. without digital time lining i could have possibly kept the submission receipt or a copy of my work to add into my memory box. It defiantly is an achievement that i want to remember and the feeling of relieve/ pure joy I received on completion.

Instead of keeping birthday / greetings cards there is a permanent on-line record of everybody good wishes to you . Its a nice thing to re-visit especially considering that half the people who have wished you a happy birthday probably would never have gotten round to sending you a card. 

 A huge advantage to digital memory in my opinion is sharing photo albums . I have assess to almost every picture ever taken of me or of importance to me and we are able to share our personal collection of photographs that before social media sites were restricted to the photographer and not easily shared. 

A sense of life after death , this may be along shot but after experiencing lost we look at photographs differently , its a moment inn the past but with social media it very much reiterates the fact that at one point they were very much alive. I can look back at others timelines and view there on-line life , status updates ,pictures , videos , life achievements which is refreshing . I am aware the picture I have used to illustrate this point is of a dog but sadly my dog did have a Facebook page and I think t keeps there memory alive longer being digitalised. 

There is never a need to collect things on your travels again but Facebook logs your travels and even pins it onto a map . Looking at this reminds me that i need to travel more and get more purple pins on  my digital map. 

Word and image Experiments

 

 

YOUTUBE VIdeos and karen knorr

I have been trying to research ways of presenting the contents of my memory box and its story's for my practice . I have come across what seems to be a slight phemonimon on Youtube of people unpacking there memory boxes on camera and explaining what everything is and why and who it reminds them of ect ect. There are mainly what I like to call semi professional / professional youtubers who construct these videos but there are also lower quality videos available to view. Its such an uplifting experience being able to share somebody treasured childhood/ adulthood memory's when you are in no way connected to there story's.  Its also made it even more evident that peoples memory boxes although personal to them have similar themes to others and collect similar objects.  I have used the media of video before and I would feel comfortable with the equipment but filming myself I would find a bit of a challenge . I have respect for these people having the confidence to share something so personal with the entire world of YouTube but its not something I see myself doing.  Below I have included a video that I feel links with the contents of my memory box because of the age she recorded it .




Well I don't really have much of an "Online personality" and I don't feel comfortable sharing my memory box via the media of video . I couldn't imagine the gallery wall where we show case our work being a video of myself talking , it would just make me cringe but I do feel the need to share the contents of my memory box and the story behind keeping those objects on my blog. This lead me to think of a word and image photographer that I have used as inspiration in my practice before , Karen Knorr . Knorr did a series of 26 images in the series Gentleman (1981-1983). She photographed English gentlemen at gentleman's clubs in saint James in central London. Sat underneath the black and white portraits is  text constructed out of speeches of parliament and news. She has used Word and image together to create humour in her word and to poke fun at traditional English gentlemen's clubs .

I believe that adding text to an image can humanize it further and make it even more relatable to to the viewer. It can be informative , it can push opinions or it can simply add more depth or a background story to it .  I would like to share individual objects in my memory box in this style , Lost in a chunky white boarder which is mirroring the idea of a contained memory I would like to share short captions with my photographed objects . See if worded correctly if I can share some of my private memory's , I would also like to try and share the emotive quality's of this objects through my imagery weather it be humorous ( which Im guessing the majority will be ) or more serious emotions . I wont know until I re-open my memory box and start to shoot.

What is in my memory Box ? *

So I think its time I started to look into my own personal memory box and start dissecting it down , I could look in this box everyday and it would never fail to rekindle warm nostalgic memories . It a feel good object , tangible , damaged in some of the objects cases yet desperately trying to be preserved in a little wooden hat box stacked among other similar boxes. It makes barely any physical impact in my bedroom but its contents has such emotive value to me.

My memory box is very much a documentation of my youth and teenage years .I think from a baby where you parents document your memory's for you , starting high school , becoming a pubescent teenager with there own mind there is a transaction in which we start to document our own experiences maybe in which we wouldn't necessarily want to share with our parents maybe this is a possible reason I have kept mine away in a box for so many year and never displayed or shared.
There is nothing drastically bad in there but at the age I started pushing boundary's I obviously felt the need to preserve the memory's for example the first time I drank under age without parental consent was a 2L bottle of Strong bow cider . I got so drunk at this party I threw up and got taken to a friends house to recover , I kept the label to remind me never to drink Strong bow again ! Funnily enough I Still love strong bow it reminds me of my youth and this mundane piece of rubbish I have decided to keep brings me so many memory's and happiness . 
None of objects other than photographs are self explaitry and even that can be argued. If somebody else were to look through my collection I would feel the need to explain the story to individual objects like I have done above.

 

The contents of my memory box

172 x Photographs (All different shapes and sizes , some mounted)

17 x Greetings cards

2 x High School Planners

14 x Gig/ Festival Tickets

4 x Lanyards

3 x Jewellery boxes minus the jewellery

10 x Club / Festival Wristbands

4 x Photo Key rings

1 x Mobile Phone

7 x Handwritten notes and drawing

1 x Half a five pound note

1 x Second place rosette

2 x Badges

1 x Drinking Straw

1 x Whistle

1 x Medal

1 x Dress price label

2 x Handmade bracelets

1 x Plastic letter D

1 x Hard-core pendant

1 x "Emergency Exit" Sticker

1 x Sim Card

1 x Plectrum

1 x Flashing Ring

1 x Southern Comfort Mask

1 x Cross pendant  

1 x Comic Google eye ring

1 x Hard rock Drinks stirrer

1 x Save Music Wristband

1 x Written CD covers

2 x Event Posters

1 x Prom Ticket

1 x Cider label 

1 x GCSE Name card

1 x Festival Booklet

1 x Venue Nightclub Flyer

1 x Megazone Score Sheet  

Memories in the Digital age- The guardian

Whilst looking for research online I happened upon this article on Memories in the digital age The Guardians website . It discusses many points that I am exploring so I find it perfectly fitting .Alice Bell discusses the fact that due to memories becoming digitalised and mainly being accessible and shared online now that memory's are no longer private but have become publicised . She talks positively about this movement and I do agree that it can be a good thing but I still cant help but feel there is a loss of tradition with this movement . A loss of privacy and possibly sentiment . Digitalising your memorys is a great way of sharing them with the world and also having accsess to other peoples but isn't that the beauty of "your" memorys ,that they are private and yours alone , not able to be duplicated and devalued by others .

"With its unlimited capacity to store information, we should celebrate the internet's ability to enhance our collective social memory"

Memories in the digital age
Alice Bell
Saturday 14th January 2012
 

Clearing some space from an old work email account recently, I found a message from my father, who died several years ago. It was a mundane note – a handwritten equivalent would have been thrown away. As I was remembering my old dad, I posted something about him on Twitter. This was reposted by a couple of others and spotted by a colleague of his, who took a moment to exchange a brief, 140-character memory with me.

This encounter highlights two key things about memory in the digital age. First, that more and more ephemera seems to be kept online – accidentally or otherwise. Second, that memories are becoming increasingly public – social, even.

The web has become an accessible – and often very public – repository for our lives: a place to store memories, to be reminded, and to find other people's memories too. For many people, this shared experience raises questions about the nature of memory. Remembering is often a deeply personal event – do we want to experience it collectively?

Last summer, there was a spate of "Google makes you stupid" headlines. Search engines, we were told, remember for us and, as a consequence, we are forgetting to remember for ourselves. Of course, things are rarely as simple as a headline. The research behind these stories, published in the journal Science, found that when people knew information would be stored on a computer, they were less likely to remember it (although they were better at remembering where this information was stored).

The research also pointed out that humans have long drawn on the power of "transactive memory". In other words, memory has long been stored outside of our own individual bodies, it's just that, increasingly, we are storing it behind small screens rather than on shelves. Before the silicon chip was invented, pen and paper, the printing press and the camera all helped store information for us, ephemerally or for posterity.

Memory has always been a social activity (think of remembrance days, statues or plaques) and our appetite for collective nostalgia is undiminished. The leaking of personal pasts didn't start with Facebook either. Embarrassing university photos of politicians are nothing new.

Some might feel constrained by the way in which digital technologies invite us to share memories. The "folksonomies" of online personal archives – collectively created taxonomies based on tagged items such as blogposts, photos or links – may connect us to a host of interested and interesting unknown people, but they ask us to be readable to others too. Such tags invite us to concentrate on what we share, not what makes us unique. But a collective memory can be incredibly useful – liberating, even. It connects and reconnects us to things we need or want and would otherwise be without.

Perhaps as we get more used to digitised memories, we'll become a little more open and honest about our own complex (and sometimes embarrassing) personal histories. After all, memories aren't just about recalling singular facts, but making connections within a complex network. Why not use technology to help extend and enrich this network?

Memory Boxes

So what am i actually studying? what is a conventional or unconventional memory box. In my opinion memory boxes or keep sakes are different for different people . Photographs , concert tickets , memorabilia , items of clothing almost everything linked to a memory can be placed into a memory box .and the box its self is what ever the collector chooses it to be , there are not rules or guidelines yet peoples have similar themes. A common theme in memory boxes is childhood , babies clothes ,toys photographs are widely collected by parents and can have warm childhood recollections to the children when they are older. Why do we collect these objects to preserve memories . is it just a form of hording or an unwillingness to release the past ? Are they for personal pleasure or is it to share memories? Theses are all questions I hope to explore .Oliver Burkeman from The Guardian writes "Collecting memories is less about the memories than the collecting: a desperate effort to slow down time, or shore up a barricade against the inevitable oblivion of death."

I have been thinking about different types of memory "boxes", in some cases minus the box to get me started .  Some conventional others unconventional but all a way of collecting memory's. On beginning this project memory boxes now seem to come up in conversation with everyone I encounter and these are a few of the different possibility's people have said .

SHOE BOXES- it is common for people to collect memory's in a shoe box possibly through there accessibility and ease to store .

PYRAMIDS- A pyramid in a way is a historical memory box , the dead were mummified and buried with a number of there prized possessions often gold and jewels. They are also known to contain persomal objects such as heirlooms, there clothing and cosmetic/perfumes .
http://www.ehow.com/info_8163675_items-would-found-tomb-pyramid.html

HOMES- Family homes could be considered living memory boxes , riddled with photographs , memorabilia and treasured household memories. This could possibly open my project into a bigger scale , I would like to explore this idea further.

FACEBOOK PAGES- A digital representation of a memory box. Due to the development and accsesability of technology our entire lives are now virtually caught on smart phones and uploaded online . Facebook has a clever system called a time line putting all our you life events in the order they happened . Images ,videos, statuses and "tagged in" are a way of making sure you never forget a moment or memory ever again .

HARDDRIVES- Again a digitalised way of collecting memory's , particularly images and video.

DESKS- desk space and work offices can in some cases be used to store memory's . I think mainly as a use of escape, holiday and family photographs are commonly found but ornaments and tickets have been known to be found in the working environment .
LOCKET- often family heirlooms , lockets are in a way a tiny memory box containing pictures of loved ones and often with sentimental quality's.

PHOTO ALUMS- Almost every household somebody will own a photo album of memory's. 
 
I decided to look up the web definition of a memory box and it was a unexpected result.

memory box

Web definitions

1. A memory box is a box provided by some hospitals in the event of stillbirth, miscarriage, or other problem during or after childbirth. They contain objects belonging to or representing the deceased child to help relatives come to terms with their loss

It seems to me so far in these very early stages of my research memory boxes have darker themes of death and loss and time .yet memory boxes are a great way of reliving warming life events . I need to start to look into what people keep and why ,what's the significance ?

Donigan Cumming The Photo Book.

I have a creative process in which I follow for most photographic projects I undergo . I always look in "The Photo Book" for general inspiration . I always look for similar themes or photographic style that I can use for research . Whilst looking through this time I was thinking about some key words to see aesthetically if I could find something to fit. I was thinking about memory's boxes , identity , possession , digitisation etc.  I came across this image by Donigan Cummings of an elderly woman named Nettie Harris.

The image is named after a date "April 27 1991" symbolising time and by the featal and vulnerable position he has placed his model in that he time may be limited. After exploring his work further there is a recurring theme of him photographing the elderly and in particular females nude. This image stood out to me because of the use of objects that the viewer can only presume are her treasured possessions . She is lay next to what seems to be a photograph of a baby , a blue evening dress and possibly a painting. Is this small collection This woman memory box or things that she hasn't parted with throughout her life? The images reminds me of death and the aftermath . It is now very common for the dead to be buried with beloved objects whether that be photographs, wedding rings , football tops ect. Is the coffin  an unconventional memory box that physically can not be digitalised  is this something I should explore further in order to break The conventional rules of photography like Martin Parr states. 

Martin Parr - family album -Social Media

"We are in danger," Martin Parr wrote, "of having a whole generation that has no family albums, because people just leave them on their computer, and then suddenly they will be deleted."

I have come across and actively used this quote through my university experience. I am interested in tradition becoming digitalised and i also have a keen interest in socials medias influence on the public. I feel that because of my age i am apart of a social change when it comes to social media, since joining one of the most popular social media platforms (facebook) in 2008 , i have witnessed the site develop and expand .I still haven't made up my mind if i think the social media movement is a positive or negative thing. Unlike most other people my age i have limited myself to just the one social media platform and haven't joined the other popular platforms such as twitter , instagram and tumblre. I feel like this gives me an outside point of view when it comes to analysing the effect these social medias have on our behaviour and popular culture. Facebook which started out as a social site has now in my opinion has turned into a world wide stalking system where things that would usually be kept private becoming public. Like i have mentioned above I'm not sure if i think its a positive or negative thing , the media is full of story's related to facebooks pros and cons like on many occasions you have heard that people have lost there job through something there employer found on there Facebook but on the other hand people are getting noticed and employed though there on line profile daily . You can physically view the development and demise of different relationships , you can view peoples achievements , there experiences and also there everyday . Martin Par above as talked about the death of the Family Photo Album but as well as exploring the digitisation of this i would also like to explore where memorabilia , keep sakes and memory box's fit into being digitalised. Through the use of mobile phone photography , being able to add a location , tagging other people into your photos and statuses and general conversation does this illuminate the need for keepsakes and memorabilia because it is all accessible through your on line time lines?



To further Martins Parrs thoughts on the diditalisation of photographs and photo albums Marie Gautier has posted an interview with him and his thoughts online. I found the interview very interesting , i like to hear how different photographers work and also there motives behind sertain imagry but below i have put in the bits that i feel is very relevant to my subject matter.I feel like this text could relate to Susan Sontags theory's in On photography. I will be analysing this book at a later date thinking particullaly about Martin Parrs depiction of " The rules of Photography" and how he likes to break these conventions . Maybe whilst exploring  memory boxs and didgital memorys i can take a leaf out of his book and start thinking unconventionally. See what i can depict and uncover about the reasons behind why or if we do collect miscellaneous objects to preserve a memory .

"I’m the antidote to propaganda":
A conversation with Martin Parr

Marie Gautier

"Most of the photographs we digest are a form of propaganda, so my job is to puncture that and to try and show it in a more personal way, almost based on reality although, as I said, I’m trying to exaggerate it. Let me give you two examples. One of how propaganda functions as a way of selling something. If you go to a supermarket to buy some food, you look at the packet and then you look at the food inside: they don’t ever look the same. It’s a basic lie. All packaging is a lie. Let me look at another example of propaganda where a concept is being sold. When we were trying to do family albums – now we’re doing it with phones – everyone is always smiling, everyone is always happy. When you bring up kids, the idea of a baby crying is something that happens all the time, it’s inevitable, but you would never have that on a photograph. You would always show the kids smiling. There’s a certain way to photograph, there are rules laid down to try and show that you have a perfect family. We are so governed by these rules that for example you’re allowed or even encouraged to take photographs at weddings – they are very positive – but you would be scorned upon if you took photos at a funeral. You never take a camera to a funeral, it’s disrespectful. It just shows you how programmed we are in our society about how we use photography. My job is to question all these assumptions and that’s why I’m a photographer. Even Facebook pictures are propaganda because everyone is always smiling. There are a million Facebook pictures loaded every day. People are smiling and they are with this friend or that friend… that’s boring! The only thing you’re allowed to do in Facebook is put more picture of you smiling with everyone you know."  Martin Parr


Facebook the phenomenon
 It is a widely known fact that facebook is a massive social media site but i just thought it would be interesting to get some more in-depth facts before exploring the subject further . I am actually astonished at some of the facts and the sheer amount of people globally that are actively involved in this phenomenon.The information below is something i gathered directly from www.Facebook.com but was last undated 8th August 2011 .

50 Facebook Facts and Figures

8 August 2011 at 20:36

1. 1 in every 13 people on Earth is on Facebook
2. 35+ demographic represents more than 30% of the entire user base
3. 71.2 % of all USA internet users are on Facebook
4. In 20 minutes 1,000,000 links are shared on Facebook
5. In 20 minutes 1,484,000 event invites are posted
6. In 20 minutes 1,323,000 photos are tagged
7. In 20 minutes 1,851,000 status updates are entered
8. In 20 minutes 1.972 million friend requests are accepted
9. In 20 minutes 2,716,000 photos are uploaded
10. In 20 minutes 2,716,000 messages are sent
11. In 20 minutes 10.2 million comments are posted
12. In 20 minutes 1,587,000 wall posts are written
13. 750 million photos were uploaded to Facebook over New Year’s weekend
14. 48% of young Americans said they found out about news through Facebook
15. 48% of 18 to 34 year olds check Facebook right when they wake up
16. 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
17. Average user has 130 friends
18. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
19. There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
20. Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
21. Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
22. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
23. More than 70 translations available on the site
24. About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
25. Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
26. Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
27. People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
28. Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
29. Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
30. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites
31. There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
32. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
33. There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
34. Al Pacino’s face was on the original Facebook homepage
35. One early Facebook function was a file sharing service
36. The first “Work Networks” as well as the original educational networks included Apple and Microsoft
37. The meaning of the term poke has never been defined
38. There is an ‘App’ to see what’s on the Facebook cafe menu
39. Mark Zuckerburg (CEO of Facebook) calls himself a “Harvard Graduate” when in fact he didn’t graduate (apparently his reply is that “there isn’t a setting for dropout”)
40. Australian’s spend more time per month on Facebook than any other country at over 7 hours on average
41. A Facebook employee hoodie sold for $4,000 on eBay
42. Facebook was initially bank-rolled by Peter Thiel the co-founder of PayPal for $500,000
43. It is the second biggest website by traffic behind Google (at the moment)
44. Facebook is now valued at approximately $80 billion
45. Facebook makes money through advertising and virtual products
46. Facebook was almost shut down by a lawsuit by ConnectU who claimed that Zuckerburg stole the idea and Technology for Facebook (the issue was settled out of court)
47. The USA has the largest Facebook user base with 155 million people which represents 23.6% of Facebook’s total users
48. There is over 16,000,000 Facebook fan pages
49. Texas Hold’em Poker is the most popular Facebook page with over 41 million fans
50. More than 650 million active

After reading these statistics i was curious to see how much this has developed in the time that was posted and now in 2014. This below was the most up to date information i could find on the subject matter . I also find it interesting how they have compared Facebook user from 2008 ( when i first joined the on-line social media site ) and 2014.  From 100 million users to 1.11 Billion in 6 years . I have also highlighted the facts that i find most thought provoking. 

Statistic Verification

Source: Facebook

Research Date: 1.1.2014

Facebook is the largest online social network. Founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. In 2008 Facebook had 100 million users and as of March 2013 has 1.11 Billion. Facebook filed for a $5 billion IPO on February 1st 2012 and valued the company at $104 billion.

Facebook Statistics	Data
Total number of monthly active Facebook users	1,310,000,000
Total number of mobile Facebook users	680,000,000
Increase in Facebook users from 2012 to 2013	22 %
Total number of minutes spent on Facebook each month	640,000,000
Percent of all Facebook users who log on in any given day	48 %
Average time spent on Facebook per visit	18 minutes
Total number of Facebook pages	54,200,000
Facebook Demographics	Data
Percent of 18-34 year olds who check Facebook when they wake up	48 %
Percent of 18-34 year olds who check Facebook before they get out of bed	28 %
Average number of friends per facebook user	130
Average number of pages, groups, and events a user is connected to	80
Average number of photos uploaded per day	205
Number of fake Facebook profiles	81,000,000
Global Facebook Reach Statistics
Number of languages available on the Facebook site	70
Percent of Facebook users who are outside the United States	75 %
Number of users who helped translate Facebook	300,000
Facebook Platform Statistics
Average number of aps installed on Facebook each day	20 million
Total number of apps and websites integrated with Facebook	7 million
Every 20 Minutes on Facebook
Links shared	1 million
Friends requested	2 million
Messages sent	3 million
Facebook Company Statistics	Data
Total number of Facebook employees	4,619
Total 2012 Facebook revenue	$5,090,000,000
Total 2013 Facebook revenue	$6,150,000,000

Where to begin ......

So the time has finally arrived where we have to begin our Final Major Projects , luckily thanks to the advanced research strategies module i have a definite starting place . As you can see from my Advanced research strategies breif i have really struggled to find a direction and concentrate my ideas down into something i feel comfortable working with . I feel like that towards the end of that module i found my Final Ideas and concepts which is a relief but on the other hand because i spent so much time experimenting in the ideas stage i have no research to start me on a stong foot . i have to start from the beginning which i am happy to do . I intend to use online reasorces aswell as books , journals , newspapers , artist ect to inspire and guide me to a final outcome i am happy with and will be displaying in my end of year show. I am looking forward to working with my chosen themes of memories and  identity as i feel there will be loads of inspiring material already out there to start giving me food for thought. I want to leave university on a high so this project is going to be very personal to me and hopefully will be my best work yet !

Im going to start my reaserch off for this by having a refresher of my Project proposal and going from there . Here is a copy of my finalised project proposal for my last module , Then i just need to start reaserching and experimenting ! How exciting  !!!

Reaserch Project Proposal

BA (HONS) PHOTOGRAPHY

SALLY JENKINS

 

 RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL

KEY WORDS:

 Personal, Identity, Past, Future, Digitalisation, Social Platforms , Curiosity, Social Documentary , Voyeurism, Portraiture, Tradition , Memories , Subjective , gallery space , Expressive , Contrast , Juxtaposition, Emotive, Relevant , Gender specific , Public Vs. Private , Panopticon  theory , Polemic , tangible, age .

OVERVIEW / TOPICS OF INTEREST(S)

I knew I wanted this project to be both personal and polemic, as a photography student I feel the need to comment on our ever developing society and lifestyles. Yet all my work has a personal and subjective manner. I have a love for portraiture and the majority of my work is based around this genre of photography. This project like my previous will be heavily based around this genre making my final piece a series of portraits. I also like to challenge the notions between traditional and contempry and how with the constant development of technology there is an unnoticed loss of tradition. In this upcoming project I want to study the physical becoming digital and whether through the use of social media platforms our memories should remain private or become public.

TITLE

Memories … Who Cares? The digitalisation of our memories.

INTRODUCTION / RESEARCH QUESTION

 Is there still a place for tangible memorabilia or have digital platforms replaced the need?

For the fourth coming negotiated major photographic project module I want to combine a number of interests that I have explored throughout my photographic career so far. I like to confront the ever changing realisation that the world is becoming digitalised, and what social changes might be happening as a result of. Also I have a keen interest in portraiture and social documentary which will massively influence the project at hand. As you can see through my advanced research strategies blogger that I have wanted to include family portraiture in my work for quite some time and I feel like now is the perfect opportunity to do so. "We are in danger," Martin Parr wrote, "of having a whole generation that has no family albums, because people just leave them on their computer, and then suddenly they will be deleted." I want to expand on this quote and explore more than just photography but also memorabilia and keep sakes .

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• I intend to produce a series of high quality portraits fit for gallery exhibition.
• I will be exploring the place of memories in modern day society through the use of my own family and there memories.
• I intend to challenge the idea that our memories have become public rather than private and investigate if this is a positive thing or a loss of tradition.
• I intend to investigate if memory boxes or scrap booking is dead and instead of keeping items/ photographs of sentimental value we photograph them and share it online instead.
• I intend to experiment with video and sound alongside my still portraits. I feel that maybe the subject’s voice or the items them have kept in memory boxes would complement the imagery and make it more real/ personal to the viewer.

RATIONALE

As I have mentioned above I feel we are in the middle of a social change when it comes to saving our memories, I feel that this will be interesting to document .I have asked a handful of people if they keep memory box/memorabilia and the answers has varied .From birth to early adult hood parents generally capture, record and store memories of their offspring’s journey through life. I.e. First birthdays, first day at school, family gatherings, family holidays etc. As young people make the transition into adulthood , I’m finding that there is a tendency to start collecting their own memories which would include first concerts , autographs , love letters ,valentines cards etc. All first experiences without your parents and they generally develop from there. Through the transparency of Facebook and other social media platforms is there less of a need to collect object but instead record images through digital photography,

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

I have started collecting research on my online Blogger. I have briefly been looking into the phycology of why people collect but I would like to research this much further when the actual module begins. I have also looked at social media examples of the digitalisation of our memories through Facebook, Twitter and Instragram. Pervious to this advanced research strategies module I have had other projects with similar traditional vs. digital themes so I have a basic concept on some theory’s for example Roland Barthes, camera Lucida will be massively influential during my research stages .

GENERAL METHODOLOGY

I will be conducting this project like every other; I feel I have a work method that works. Alongside my final series of images and possible short films I will be keeping an online blog for all my research and developments. I intend to for this module keep a hand written reflective daily diary  that I can submit separate to the blog so I can hand in a physical and a digital all based around the subject at hand. I will spend set hours on library research, online research; blogging and development which will be pre-determined in my break down weekly planner (see blogger or print out). Then I will schedule time for test shoots, development shoots, post production (Photoshop), printing, framing and hanging.

QUALIFICATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS

 So far at this stage I don’t envisage any restrictions. Even though I will be using my own family as subjects I will still need to complete model release forms.  I have kept this project purposely close to home to avoid restrictions and so the module can run as smooth as possible. I feel like my family will be reliable and willing to help in any which way.

SPECIALIST NEEDS  - EQUIPMENT ACCESS, WORKSHOPS, TRAINING ETC

I currently own a canon 60D but I will be looking into borrow a better camera from university to conduct this project preferably the canon mark D Just so I get the best possible quality image and video. I will also be looking into borrowing some voice recording equipment form the music or film departments so that I can conduct a clear interview with my subjects over their belongings.  No special needs , workshops or training needed at this stage.

INITIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY: BOOKS & REASONING

Roland barthes- Camera Lucida

Susan Sontag – On photography

Ian Jeffreys – Photography a concise history

Thomas Hillard – Places to go, People to see

Damian Sutton- Photography, Cinema, Memories

Train your gaze – Rosewell Angier