‘Learning from photogaffes: a primer for home mode visual culture'

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces the notion of ‘Photogaffe’ in the context of an applied visual anthropology. Focus is placed on examples of ordinary people causing unforeseen social problems with their cameras and/or pictures as part of family photography and related home media. Paper suggests changing an attention from seeking meaning in picture content to meanings in the social acts responsible for the communication process. The vehicle is a collection of examples documented in a series of letters written to ‘Dear Eastman,’ a newspaper advice columnist. Several letters and responses are presented and recommended for instruction in a college course on basic theoretical points of the visual social sciences in general and visual culture and communication in particular.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual culture
• visual communication
• etiquette
• family photographs
• teaching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This wording and thinking are adopted from the writings of one of my professors, namely the late Dell Hymes, a leading figure in socio-linguistics.

2 It is important to clarify the kinds of ’dilemmas’ that I am not considering. Examples include: pictures that focus on crude or embarrassing acts:dog humping Dad’s leg for Xmas card, boner snapshots photos in background that should not be visible; photographs that reveal bad, wrong or criminal behavior or activities (regardless of humor); pictures that are published or distributed that reveal illegal activity; pictures taken illegally using hidden cameras in kids’ or woman’s bathrooms. Newspaper photo editor publishing wrong photographs, examples of ‘bad’ photography or ‘awkward family photos.’ Emailing the ‘wrong’ pictures to the wrong people, e.g. male teens sending sexy photographs of girlfriend(s) to classmates, teammates or even to girls’ parents. Pictures taken by victim while being hurt or in dangerous location/posed just before dying (falling off a mountain cliff’s edge; ‘72-Year-Old Woman Gored by Bison in Yellowstone While Taking Pictures’ 30 June 2020). Lives threatened after posting photographs (‘Their Photos Were Posted Online. Then They Were Bombed’), ‘Nurse Fired for Posting Pictures of Newborn with Birth Defects on Social Media.’ ‘Accidental photogaffe’: ‘Boy hangs photo of mother’s killer on bedroom wall’ (12/2/2022).

3 In 2012, I self-published a short paperback book with DogEar Publishing, entitled PHOTOGAFFES: Family Snapshots and Social Dilemmas. Unfortunately, without notice, this press went out of business and ceased publishing in 2021. I was very disappointed, but my current plans are to update, revise and re-publish the original text. The eight letters in the following pages come from that earlier book.

4 Originally, such newspaper columns as ‘Dear Abby’ addressed questions of problematic manners and etiquette in general. In recent decades, a shift has been seen toward a broader range of inter-personal difficulties and strained social circumstances that can even fracture family relationships.

5 As suggestive as it may seem, the name ‘Eastman’ is fictitious and has absolutely no connection to any one individual.

6 Several variables are easily overlooked. How are interpretations of such pictures situationally or positionally dependent? For instance, are meanings we attribute to household pictures different if they appear in a living room, a hallway, a bedroom, a bathroom (see below), in a bookshelf, on a TV set, stuck in a mirror’s frame, etc.?

7 See Whitehead (2022) – ’No pictures, don’t touch, and walk in straight lines: Japan rues return of unruly tourists after Covid’.

8 For an interesting case of on-going contemporary change regarding taking and posting funeral selfies (the controversies surrounding the posting of online ‘selfies at funerals’ that sprung up in late 2013), see Gibbs et al. (2014).

9 An extreme example of sharing pictures is found in Japan with the mini-industry of ‘Print Club’ (Puricura) which has prospered for decades fulfilling wishes of (usually) teenage girls to make and carry small albums of young friends’ pictures (Chalfen & Murui, 2001).As somewhat expected, on occasion, sharing has proved to be too easy, as demonstrated in studies of ‘sexting’ – an increasingly problematic practice of taking and exchanging nude selfies, often among young people (Chalfen, 2009, 2020).

10 Each person appearing in a group picture can expect to receive a print of that picture – much in line with Shinto and spirit beliefs.

11 As summarized in 2022 by Yingying Chen, Zhaojuan Guo and Qiuyue Pan: ‘The topic of tourism photography has gradually attracted the attention and discussion of many academic circles. In the field of psychology and motivation of tourism photography, many useful achievements have emerged. Scholars carried out research on the motivation of tourism photography, which can be roughly summarized into the following types: voyeurism, relationship maintenance, proof and memory, self-narration and self-identification.’

12 According to a helpful comment by Anne Rawls: ‘If one assumes, as Garfinkel does, that the meaningful, patterned, and orderly character of everyday life is something that people must work to achieve, then one must also assume that they have some methods for doing so.’ That is, ‘ … members of society must have some shared methods that they use to mutually construct the meaningful orderliness of social situations’ (Rawls, 2000).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Chalfen

Richard Chalfen, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Temple University (Philadelphia and Tokyo, Japan) and recently, Senior Scientist at the Center on Media and Child Health, Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. His research combines interests in cultural anthropology and visual communication, American Studies and for the past 30 years, the visual culture of modern Japan. Publications include five monographs on home media, over 150 journal articles, book chapters and reviews.