Smartphone photography and its socio-economic life in China: An ethnographic analysis

Abstract

The smartphone is perhaps one of the few items that can define our time in terms of its ubiquity and mobility. The photographic feature of various types of smartphones has also drawn the attention of consumers and manufacturers in recent years, with the consecutive upgrades of built-in cameras, photo-editing and sharing apps. From the taking, retouching, to publishing a photograph, smartphone photography, coupled with social media, has become important in understanding the relationships between digital image and sociality, aesthetics and identity. This article examines several new developments such as the rise of ‘professional amateurs’ and the selfie within the Chinese context. It then attempts to develop theories of smartphone photography that incorporate these developments. Using ethnographic analysis and interviews, this article aims to theorize smartphone photography as a series of practices that reveal local and individual specifications that traverse technicity, sociality and aesthetics. It shows how this has had a significant impact on Chinese people’s economic and social life.