WhatsApp iconology: narratives on in-app photographic practices in (transnational) family communication

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sharing photographs and photo-chatting are common practices in doing family at a distance. This study looks at the processes of the production and circulation of photographs within the family network, analysing participants’ narratives about their image-based communication in WhatsApp. The data was collected as an ethnographic enquiry into the digitally mediated (transnational) family communication of five Polish women and their children living in Finland. It consists of five auto-driven visual elicitation interviews with an interactive collage, three elicitation interviews, with the participant’s smartphone used for fast reference to their in-app chats, and one semi-structured interview. The in-app photographs are explored as ‘imagetext’, that is, visual and verbal representations that create the WhatsApp ‘iconology’ of family visual communication. In participants’ narratives, photographs are regarded as an obligation (always to be sent to somebody), evidence (of being somewhere or achieving something), or a form of visual co-presence with living-apart relatives. Photo-chatting entertains (images of pets), provides expertise (snaps of medication), or is used to show off (photos taken at competitions). Photo-chatting helps to maintain family relationships by showing affection, comforting, and caring over a distance.