Photographic Memory : Photography In the World of Social Media

Article by Erica Whiteman

Before Facebook and the world of social media, photographs were printed from film negatives processed in a lab. Prints could be ordered in various sizes to give as gifts to friends and loved ones or framed to preserve memories. The invention of the digital camera made photographs easier to take. Individuals could snap photos of anything and everything without having to worry about wasting film. Users could instantly delete photographs not worth keeping or sharing. Printing photos from a digital camera used the same process as film negatives, but the photos were printed from a memory card or CD.

Now with the use of camera phones and smartphones, everyone is able to take photos on the go and share their photos instantly. Apps such as Hipstamatic on the iPhone enable the smartphone handset to be a virtual instamatic camera giving the effect of a vintage photograph. Camera 360, Vingette and Retro Camera are apps available to the Android operating system that create the feel of an actual camera rather than a camera phone. Photos taken with these apps can be uploaded to sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Snapfish and Photo Box, which have revolutionised photo sharing across social media.

Printing photos shared through social media has been problematic due to the low-resolution of uploaded images. The quality has generally not been good enough to even enlarge to a 5×7 size print. To solve this problem, Hipstamatic created the HipstaMart enabling users to print photos taken with the app. This feature is only available in the US at the moment.

Some of the recent changes to Facebook have included uploading photos at higher resolutions. Photo printing kiosks, such as ones run by Kodak, have integrated