Digital photography: communication, identity, memory

Taking photographs seems no longer primarily an act of memory intendedto safeguard a family’s pictorial heritage, but is increasingly becoming atool for an individual’s identity formation and communication. Digitalcameras, cameraphones, photoblogs and other multipurpose devices areused to promote the use of images as the preferred idiom of a newgeneration of users. The aim of this article is to explore how technicalchanges (digitization) combined with growing insights in cognitive scienceand socio-cultural transformations have affected personal photography.The increased manipulation of photographic images may suit the individual’sneed for continuous self-remodelling and instant communication andbonding. However, that same manipulability may also lessen our grip on ourimages’ future repurposing and reframing. Memory is not eradicated fromdigital multipurpose tools. Instead, the function of memory reappears in thenetworked, distributed nature of digital photographs, as most images aresent over the internet and stored in virtual space.