Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?
Hannes Becker is a German freelance photographer who specialises in documenting outdoor adventures and landscapes. Becker has been practicing professional photography since 2014, and for the past five years he has been using Instagram to share his passion and works, whilst gaining 1.3 million Instagram followers.
What is the title of the photo you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)
The photo I have chosen is called ‘Preikestolen’
With the photo you are examining when was it produced (date)?
Preikestolen was posted to Instagram by Becker on the 23rd of September 2018, but presumably was produced some time before, because the photo was taken on a DSLR and uses his own editing software. Despite networked photography making this process much easier and faster (Palmer, 2014), Instagram also creates an environment where popular profiles need to create posting schedules ahead of time, creating a more curated and less spontaneous publishing process for popular accounts.
How was the photo authored?
The photo was taken on a DSLR before Becker posted it on Instagram. Becker uses a suite of editing software to softly enhance the photo through colour grading. This adds a deeper mood to his works and creates a thematic colouring, consistent with his Instagram gallery. This authoring enables his Instagram profile feed to appear more curated and cohesive, reflecting his style as an author and the importance of a curated aesthetic on Instagram, which exists to make and distribute aesthetic and unusual images (Palmer, 2014, p.245).
In a strange turn of events, Becker’s camera phone inspired him into get into photography and editing, and yet as he continued on his path he turned back to the slightly more traditional medium of DSLR. This switch allowed him to author higher quality images, which in turn lead to a career creating adventurous and aesthetic content. If he had kept taking photos on his iPhone would he have ever made the career he has? This shows that even though camera phones ‘represent something new in the history of photography’ (Palmer, 2014). It could be argued that just because it is ‘new’ it may not necessarily better, just more accessible and perhaps a stepping stone in the photographic profession.
How was the photo published?
The photo was first published on Becker’s Instagram account on the 23rd of September 2018, and it was also published on his website at around the same time. Becker authors his photos on a DSLR for quality purposes, but it is important to note that he publishes them on Instagram through his smart phone. Halpern and Humphreys (2014, p.7) highlight that the ease of publishing photos is one of elements that ‘made the iPhone a “revolutionary” tool for photography’.
Out of curiosity, I scrolled down to the bottom of his profile to his first published posts. His early content from 2014 leaves something to be desired. The harsh, original Instagram filters and borders cast an amateur lense on his record of the mundane world. However, they also provide an insight into the process that many online publishers go through to understand how to build a following on Instagram. He has always published landscape content but has transitioned through phases; from the harsh, standard instagram filters snapped on his iPhone, to the intensely sharpened images of urban scenes. He then shifted more towards snow landscapes with softer filters, before transitioning into brightly saturated photos, of a higher quality, taken on DSLR and with a more distinct aesthetic. Finally, he arrived at his current theme, using dark filters to reflect the dramatic and moody landscapes, with colour grading which is more unique to his work.
Becker’s account is a great example of how online photographic authors publish content according to what is most popular to audiences. As well as how Instagram’s tiled format is used to publish digital galleries of photographs.
- Becker’s First posts, using Instagram filters and borders to capture everyday occurrences.
2. Becker’s intermediate posts, still relying on Instagram’s suite of filters, more curated and thematic content
3. Becker’s current feed, highly curated, high engagement, strong use of personalised filters applied in post production.
How is the photo distributed?
In line with the nature of Instagram, the photo was distributed to his 1.3 million followers through the platform and its algorithms. By using hashtags (#followinglight and #Norway) as well as a Norway geotag, Becker distributed his photo to a much larger audience of Instagram users who may not have been following him. The photo was then re-distributed, along with many of his works, through reposters, who then tag him and add hashtags to incite conversation and showcases the generative nature of Instagram and other social media platforms.
Despite not being able to find any information on the Becker’s posts topic, it is important to mention that Instagram users, like Becker, can also distribute their content through sponsored ads which can reach a huge audience. Instagram ads can be tailored to target specific ages, genders, geographical areas and interests based on the amount of ad spend invested by the distributor.
After being published and distributed on Instagram, Becker put the photo up for sale as a print on his website.
References:
Halpern, M & Humpreys, L 2014, ‘iPhoneography as an emergent art world’, New Media Society, vol. 18, no. 1, pp.62-81.
Palmer, 2014, ‘Mobile Photography’, in G Goggin and L Hjorth (eds), The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, 1st edition, Routledge, Abingdon, UK, pp. 244-254.