iPhoneography and Contemporary Image-making: Examining a New Form of Visual Communication in the Age of Social Media

Abstract

New digital imaging practices have risen with the emergence of image-based social media. iPhoneography as a contemporary imaging making practice is altering how we make and read images. What is also unprecedented is the emergence of aesthetics that are both visual and social in their nature, which both are clearly manifested on the user-friendly platform Instagram. While new visual aesthetics are rooted in the new attraction to vintage filters, social aesthetics manifest in embracing the mundane of human life as a source for visual communication. This qualitative dissertation attempts to further investigate how using a smartphone as the sole device for image-making and dissemination has encouraged experimental image-making and influenced the field of visual communication.