So You Like Taking Photos Huh

Taking photographs to capture moments is not a novel activity. Taking pictures is an activity we are so accustomed to that it often escapes conscious thought; it has become habitual and ingrained in the human experience. The digital age of photography brings a sense of comfort in photography that has made documenting memories easier, but it also brings a new form of surveillance and data harvesting. Digital photo cataloguing applications like Google Photos and Apple Photos quantify every image they store and capture metadata and location data. These applications process and assign the images to ‘auto-generated’ albums without user authorization. This study aims to understand what data is being captured and to what extent by digital photo cataloguing applications. Withdrawing from digital photographic mediums, this study uses analog film mediums to capture daily life. Throughout this experience, I conducted an auto-ethnographic study on photography practices. Findings introduced and proved the primary concern of data surveillance in digital photo cataloguing applications. While the process of resistance proved to be inefficient on some ends, it provided great insight into how analog media is a strong medium of resistance against digital data colonialism.