TY - JOUR
T1 - On friendship, boobs and the logic of the catalogue
T2 - Online self-portraits as a means for the exchange of capital
AU - Schwarz, Ori
PY - 2010/5
Y1 - 2010/5
N2 - Mobile photography and the emergence of lay self-portraiture are often interpreted as emancipatory processes of increasing agency and self-revelation. This article challenges this view by examining photos published in online albums and social network sites (SNSs). Bourdieuvian field analysis is utilized to reveal the local forms of capital that characterize those sites as fields of cultural production. Special attention is given to the enabling function of photos in the exchange between cultural, corporeal and social capital. Unlike both 'home mode' photos aimed for family and friends and professional photos aimed for strangers, photos in SNSs are an instrument aimed at making strangers into friends through their incorporation in a consumerist visual representation of society as a catalogue. Rather than an expression of a reflexively chosen identity, the photos produced by different actors are explained by their corresponding position in the field and composition of capital, as well as by the photos' functionality.
AB - Mobile photography and the emergence of lay self-portraiture are often interpreted as emancipatory processes of increasing agency and self-revelation. This article challenges this view by examining photos published in online albums and social network sites (SNSs). Bourdieuvian field analysis is utilized to reveal the local forms of capital that characterize those sites as fields of cultural production. Special attention is given to the enabling function of photos in the exchange between cultural, corporeal and social capital. Unlike both 'home mode' photos aimed for family and friends and professional photos aimed for strangers, photos in SNSs are an instrument aimed at making strangers into friends through their incorporation in a consumerist visual representation of society as a catalogue. Rather than an expression of a reflexively chosen identity, the photos produced by different actors are explained by their corresponding position in the field and composition of capital, as well as by the photos' functionality.
KW - Corporeal capital
KW - Exchange of capital
KW - Internet
KW - Online albums
KW - Photography
KW - Self-portraits
KW - Social network sites
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77952302948&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1354856509357582
DO - 10.1177/1354856509357582
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AN - SCOPUS:77952302948
SN - 1354-8565
VL - 16
SP - 163
EP - 183
JO - Convergence
JF - Convergence
IS - 2
ER -