The Future of Domestic Photography

Abstract

We now turn our gaze to the future and make our predictions as to what will influence future domestic photography. Our starting point is that, in the past two decades, the infrastructure of domestic photography has changed from a film-based one into a general-purpose information and communications technology infrastructure. We summarise what we see as the most important changes that have occurred in domestic photography in the last two decades: the sheer number of pictures and cameras; the possibilities for editing photographs; the new ways of sharing, archiving, and storing digital photographs; and – given a brief look here – the changes in the ‘domestic sphere’. After that, we cast our gaze into the future and discuss what we see as the main actors shaping the ‘Digital Path’. In other words, we ask what can be found as key business models, discourses, legal actions, and other actors that should be taken into account when one considers the future of domestic photography. In the final section, we summarise our view of the issues soon to face the ICT infrastructure that forms the environment for photographic technology. These boil down to how to build infrastructural simplicity and endurance.