Digital cameras and domestic photography: communication, agency and structure

Abstract

This article seeks to open up debate on the nature of communication in digital domestic photography. The discussion locates itself between the putative poles of `digital democracy' and `digital literacy', questioning the communicative co-ordinates of the snapshot and identifying the `idiomatic genres' in which it takes place. The authors argue that digital cameras enable domestic photographers to take `good' or professional-looking photographs and make certain capacities of professional cameras available for consumer use. Conversely, however, they argue that the question of critical understanding of the politics of representation in domestic camera use remains, since technical proficiency is not necessarily always accompanied by analysis. One reason suggested for this is that, frequently, the uses of photography are insufficiently analysed. The article therefore criticizes the idea that (domestic) photography can be understood in terms of `language' without paying due attention to the use of photography to capture the nonverbal.