Photo Album of the 21st Century

For this photo album I used a photo collection of polaroids that once belonged to a swedish family but ended up on a flea market. Photographs produced in a systematic manner during the years 1966 to 1975, capturing closest family and friends. This book represents the future of a traditional photo album. Once a necessity in every household, this concept is gradually vanishing, replaced by its digital equivalents, such as Instagram and other kinds of social media image-based sites. Social media photography is not about spontaneous recordings and documentation of one’s life, it’s more of a means to show of a curated narrative of one’s lifestyle. By sharing publicly on social networks such as Instagram, one can present an illusion of a perfect life carefully curated and designed through photographs. It reflects the self-absorbed nature of 21st century “photo albums.” Instagram fosters an “almost too perfect” representation of life, prevailing happiness with only the best memories, the best moments, the happiest families. People often use hashtags, such as #happy #fun #best to give an impression that that’s how the atmosphere was when the photograph was taken. Today’s social-media photographers are engaged in taking pictures that glorify the portrayal of “me”. Instagram gives the possibility to represent ourselves the way we want to be seen. As opposed to the traditional photo-album, nowadays, images of our lives are shared on social media, with more than the closest group of friends and family to see. Social media networks combine the public and private, where our personal memories are shared with strangers. The idea of a photograph shifted utterly - will a virtual picture in an online album be able to generate the same kind of nostalgia as tangible pre-digital images?