From the frame to Facebook
Sharing but caring about the mass migration of photographs online. Tony Henderson reports
Before the arrival of Facebook 20 years ago, personal photographs stayed in the home in frames or albums.
Today, pictures are posted on social media for all to see.
Dr Claire Bessant from Northumbria University Law School has researched how photography has evolved and the implications of sharing images online.
“We are not saying don’t share photos, but think about the type of pictures being shared and if you are happy to lose control of these photographs,” she said.
Dr Bessant, with collaborators heritage interpretation consultant Jo Scott and Chris Woodcock from White Oak Studios in Northumberland have staged an exhibition at Bellingham Heritage Centre to mark the Facebook anniversary and 120 years of popular photography.
Picture This: Marking 20 Years of Facebook and 120 Years of Photographs runs until November 17. It is part of the Being Human Festival - the UK's national festival of the humanities.
Although people have taken pictures for well over a century, Facebook’s 2004 launch - and all the social media platforms which followed - has led to widespread sharing of pictures online.
The exhibition draws upon Bellingham Heritage Centre’s extensive photographic collection, dating back to the 1860s, to delve into the history of photography and explore the implications social media and AI have for how images are captured and shared now and in the future.
Highlighting how photography has shaped personal and collective stories over the past century, the events will incorporate short talks on the exhibition and Dr Bessant’s research.
Dr Bessant said: “Parents have always taken and shared photographs of their children. With the introduction of social media, we have seen huge changes to the way we share photos and who can see our photos - it is harder than ever to keep hold of our own stories.
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“I have been exploring how and why we share photographs and the potential impact our actions may have upon children’s privacy. This exhibition explores why, in an age of social media and artificial intelligence (AI) - which makes it ever easier to manipulate our own and others’ photos - we all need to think before we share our photos.
“Once we share a photo we can easily lose control of it. A photo shared with friends or family may end up being shared on widely, all over the world.”
A trail for visitors around the centre shows how photography and its equipment has changed over the years.
The centre also has a re-creation of the shop of photographer Walter Percy Collier who lived and worked in Bellingham from 1913 into the 1930s, travelling by bike and motorcycle around the area and taking pictures.
There are more than 1,700 images in the Collier collection.