Abstract
This book is one of a number of books in the series, Shaping Inquiry in Culture, Communication and Media Studies, edited by Barbie Zelizer of the University of Pennsylvania, USA. The book itself is edited by Sharrona Pearl, Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and it explores images in many different contexts, highlighting the ethical and technological implications of the contexts in question, and how the modes of production and communication around images change, as well as the images themselves.
The book has 14 essays, each written by a different contributor, split between three main sections, each with its own introductory essay: authorizing images, memorializing images, and embodying images. The first section on authorizing images answers questions concerning who owns images and what we are and aren’t allowed to do with them. For example, if a monkey takes a selfie, who owns the copyright? If a bystander takes images or videos of someone being attacked or of events unfolding during a crisis, should they be classed as apathetic and of failing to intervene? Or should their role as documentarian be classed as in fact intervening? Or what should happen to privately owned collections of artwork after the owner dies? Issues surrounding the spread of CCTV and its impact on police work are also discussed in this section.
The second section on memorializing images asks questions concerning what images make us feel and what they are really showing us. For example, the prevalence of social media has made us feel as though we constantly need to be “updating ourselves.” Another chapter looks at digital memory and highlights how feelings of embarrassment, guilt, fear, and shame are prominent emotional characteristics of living in and through media technologies, as people are worried about not being able to delete embarrassing images and content that is online. The ambiguities that cameras can introduce are also discussed in another essay within this section. The standout essay of the book is also in this section, the essay that is likely to have resonance with the largest number of readers. The essay is “Facebook Photography and the Demise of Kodak and Polaroid,” by Marita Sturken from New York University. The essay talks about Facebook’s timeline feature, and how it is fast becoming the photo album of the 21st century. Ethical concerns regarding Facebook’s retention of ownership of content posted on the site are also discussed, as well as the controversial profits that are made from access to consumers and their personal data.
The third section on embodying images discusses issues around the things that images can represent, and the ways in which they can invite the viewer to see things differently and to interact and engage with both other people and ourselves in different ways. For example, how are vision, image, and empire connected? How can images relate to a national landscape? And how can images of one’s face bring together the themes of ethics, image, and technology? In his essay, “The Face as a Medium,” Amit Pinchevski of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel highlights how the convergence of online platforms and mobile media has given rise to a culture of sharing visibility.
Out of the 16 contributors to the book, only two are not from the United States, so it would have been nicer to see a more diverse range of locations represented in the essays. However, the subject areas that the essays cover are very diverse, ranging across media and communication studies, visual culture, and cultural studies, through to digital media and cybernetics. The styles of the essays are also very eclectic, ranging from personal accounts such as the University Professor who acted as an expert witness in a federal obscenity trial, through to essays outlining more formal research investigations, such as the ethnographic study of life within Kansas wind farms. This results in a book that is never dull or boring to read, as each new chapter provides a new direction of thought.
The editor has skillfully grouped the essays into the three main thematic sections, and without these three threads tying the essays together, the book could have felt quite disparate. However, the introduction at the start of each section perfectly contextualizes the themes that are presented within the section, easing the reader into a frame of mind that is ready to take on board what the essays within the section in question have to offer. The quality of writing is also good, and despite the fact that each essay has been written by a different contributor, the style feels consistent throughout the book, with each essay also having the same format for references.
Overall, the book’s unique collection of essays means that it provides an original contribution to the overarching fields of media and communications, visual culture, and cultural studies and to anyone else who is interested in analyzing images, or understanding more about how images are produced, communicated, and displayed.