| dc.description.abstract | The form of the photographic image, as it becomes integrated further into contemporary society, is changing rapidly. This era is characterised by high volumes of data retention, and photos are recorded to rotate on social networks forever. Moreover, the photographic image is commonly used not only to communicate but also to experience and even remember moments. With the introduction of the ephemeral picture, contemporary photography broke away from the presumed and permanent character of the photograph. Key authors who have studied photography—such as Susan Sontag, Ronald Barthes, and José van Dijck—have focused on investigating the nostalgic or lasting characteristics of the photographic experience. However, it is problematic that literature on photography has not grasped the ephemeral form of the image. This research ultimately aims to gain insight into the changes in the photographic experience being caused by social-media platforms. Therefore, this thesis investigates the application Instagram as a case study—in particular, its Instagram Stories—as one of the key examples of contemporary visual culture.
The study is performed on the basis of an affordance analysis derived from the walkthrough method by Light, Burgess, and Duguay1 to examine the platform and the affordances provided by the app. This analysis is complemented by an autoethnographic approach, which is used to unravel the afforded photographic experience and to investigate the way that Instagram Stories shapes this ephemeral phenomenon. The present research inspects the environment of expected use along with the affordances provided by Instagram and its Instagram Stories, and the purpose of this goal is to show that the contemporary ephemeral image is employed in favour of the platform’s strategy to guide the users towards sharing their images at a high frequency. Arguably, this strategy can be related to the company’s business model, and it feeds into the assumption that Instagram Stories is balancing the participation of its users with a strategy to increase profits. In the context of deploying the ephemeral image, Instagram does not seem to break with the presumed and permanent character of the photograph. However, through the design of the platform, Instagram does steers the user towards this need of using the photo as a means of communication and as proof of ‘what’s happening right now’, and the process continues to balance the photographic experience between the characteristics of the lasting classic photo and the volatile and ephemeral photographic image. | |
