The remediation of the personal photograph and the politics of self-representation in digital storytelling

Over the past couple of decades, the cultural field formerly known as ‘domestic’, and later ‘personal’ photography has been remediated and transformed as part of the social web, with its convergence of personal expression, interpersonal communication, and online social networks (most recently via platforms like Flickr, Facebook and Twitter). Meanwhile, the Digital Storytelling movement (involving the workshop-based production of short autobiographical videos) from its beginnings in the mid 1990s relied heavily on the narrative power of the personal photograph, often sourced from family albums, and later from online archives. This paper addresses the new issues arising for the politics of self-representation and personal photography in the era of social media, focusing particularly on the consequences of online image-sharing. It discusses in detail the practices of selection, curation, manipulation and editing of personal photographic images among a group of activist-oriented queer digital storytellers who have in common a stated desire to share their personal stories in pursuit of social change, and whose stories often aim to address both intimate and antagonistic publics.

Paul Blum calling card with photograph Portraits Men

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Mirror-backed photograph frame containing portrait of Martin Wasserzug Portraits Men

Digital Image

Reproduction of photograph of Kurt Fritz Rosenberg walking among ruins with his camera; Greece.

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Reproduction of photograph of Kurt Fritz Rosenberg (left) with Karl Kaufman and Elsa Kaufman; Dresden.

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Reproduction of photograph of Kaufman and Rosenberg family portrait on the occasion of the wedding of Ludwig Rosenberg and Paula Rosenberg nee Joseph (left); Hamburg.

Includes Ludwig Rosenberg and Paula Rosenberg nee Joseph (left), Thekla (Tekie) Joseph (standing center), Karl Kaufman and Else Kaufman (right)

Reproduction of photograph of Kurt Fritz Rosenberg walking among ruins with his camera; Greece.

Digital Image

Reproduction of photograph of Kaufman and Rosenberg family portrait on the occasion of the wedding of Ludwig Rosenberg and Paula Rosenberg nee Joseph (left); Hamburg.

Includes Ludwig Rosenberg and Paula Rosenberg nee Joseph (left), Thekla (Tekie) Joseph (standing center), Karl Kaufman and Else Kaufman (right)

Photograph of various photographs of Albert Einstein taken by photographer Trude Fleischmann.

Signed by photographer bottom left

Silver locket-style photograph frame containing portraits of Martin Wasserzug and Gaby Netter (later Glueckselig) Portraits Couples

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Photograph of oil painting portrait of Samuel Loewen; Berlin Portraits Men

Handwritten description on verso

Photograph of oil painting portrait by Olaf Segerfeldt of Rudolf Simonis Portraits Men

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Photograph of oil painting portrait of Samuel Loewen; Berlin Portraits Men

circa 1747 in Potsdam - 30 November 1827 in Berlin; father of Rosa Valentin

Mediaş Jewish Community Photograph Collection 1900-1930s bulk: undated

The collection contains more than 60 black and white photographs from the first decades of the 20th century found in the synagogue of Mediaş (Mediasch, Medgyes), Romania. The photographs were found in the process of an on-going clean-up and restoration project and for the most part are unidentified. The photographs are of community members and their relatives and friends; they consist of group family portraits, individual portraits, babies, and children. Some of the photographs originate from Mediaş and other nearby Transylvanian towns, while others were printed by foreign printing shops and were presumably sent to relatives living in Mediaş.