Week 9 – Photo

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2hLX-gJwD/

From this week onwards we are creating content that will be published in our social media platforms using our camera phones based on the concept of good and bad design.

How did you author the photo you selected for upload to Instagram?

I was inspired by this weeks reading by Manovich for my first photo:

Think of popular Polaroid SX-70 camera produced between 1972 and 1981. It created square “instant” photo prints in one size and created its own vibrant photo culture. (Manovich, p. 16)

I took inspiration from square Polaroid photos and I decided to find compositions that contain squares and geometric shapes while thinking about design. Walking through the city I found a run-down skyscraper, with floor to ceiling glass that may have been revolutionary for its time. I noticed the design of the building’s glass walls exposed messy desks, offices and air-conditioning units poking out at random. When this building was originally built it may have been considered good design, however, looking at it now it seems messy and inefficient.

I used my smartphone, Oppo AX5s, using the rear camera of the phone I took 3 photos, standing across the street from the building. As it was daylight, I did not need a flash or filters when I took the photos. The original photo was in portrait format, which matched the height of the building.

How did you publish the photo on Instagram?

When I published the photo, I chose 1 photo out of the 3 that I took, because it captured the geometric elements I first noticed. The other 2 photos that I did not publish were interrupted by cars driving past which seemed to distract from the geometric design I was trying to capture.

When uploading to Instagram, the 1×1 square format referenced Polaroid photos from my inspiration and aligned with the window frames in the building. A constraint of Instagram that might be considered restrictive at times, actually complimented the photo. ‘It is also important that during 2010–2015 Instagram images were constrained to a single square format and the same size, and that the app gave millions of people around the world the same controls for editing these photos’. (Manovich, p. 17)

I used a popular quote by Thomas Edison, as a caption to highlight the messy desks and office interiors in the building, ‘If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then is an empty desk a sign?’

The lighting on the day was good, so I did not use any filters, only a slight adjustment of contrast and a small zoom in the original photo.

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?

To distribute I used hashtags: #thomasedison #skyscraper #modernism #office #cityphotography. I added a geolocation tag: Collins street, which as an iconic location of Melbourne. From Instagram, I automatically selected to share with Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. The Facebook post was similar to the original, displaying the photo as a square, however on Twitter only the caption was posted with a link to the photo. As Tumblr is built for displaying images, it seemed the best for sharing this photo directly in the feed.

Facebook post