Photoblogs pt. 2

In his article, Cohen spends approximately 16 pages analyzing the photoblog. Clearly, two entries devoted to it on my blog about blogs isn’t sufficient!

Last entry I left off by noting photobloggers aim to capture what many traditional bloggers do… their lives, in a nutshell. The photoblogs are supposed to express every emotion and occurrence, not just milestones or tragedies. Some have accused bloggers of being self-aggrandizing – the next step would be to accuse photobloggers of being wannabe Annie Leibovitzes

I believe the purpose of blogs, while inherently self-promotional, isn’t narcissistic. The same goes for photoblogs. When Cohen asked why photographers blog, the answer was most often

something like ‘I’m not exactly sure.’ The popularity of this answer is evidence not of a lack of productive self-reflexivity in the photoblogger, nor really of a shortage of good answers, but of something objectionable in the question. That objectionable something seems to be this: the question ‘why do you blog’ assumes that the desire to do so is an exterior condition, that desire either precedes and produces the blog, or that the blog simply effects a desired outcome. It assumes that the photoblog is a means to an end, or the end of some means. (898)

There is a large photoblogging community online, Photoblogs.org that allows users to submit their photoblogs (the site started in 2002 with just 15 links – it now has over 17,000), with mission “to connect the audience to the photoblog, and to help the photoblogging community grow and evolve.” If one is interested in photoblogs, this is a great place to start, for it allows tagging of blogs and the always-fun “random” feature. The FAQ is also helpful, for getting one involved in the community.

It’s not necessary to answer “why photoblog” – it’s more of a, why not? Since Kodak introduced consumers to film cameras, people have catalogued their lives in pictures. The photoblog is simply a quicker way of doing this, with the potential for a larger audience.