BCM241 Pitch: Researching Digital Photography on Instagram

In previous blog posts, I have outlined photography as a media niche and mapped its online field site. Mapping this field site and performing some early research has allowed me to narrow my chosen niche down a little more.

Here is my updated field site mind map.

So for this DA project, I will be looking at digital photography on Instagram. The online digital photography community has had to combat the Instagram algorithm’s preference for influencer content by producing more creative photography content, such as the post below.

I’m interested in researching the ways that photographers have built and maintained a following and persona using the app, despite its challenges. Through an autoethnographic research approach, I can investigate the ways that the platform is used by digital photographers by participating in content creation and dissemination using my own photography account.

I plan to create, post and interact with photography content and test the allowances of Instagram as a platform for photographers. Below is a weekly plan of my project.

Some of the questions I’d like to base my research around are:

Focusing on my own observations within the field site will help avoid any ethical issues, especially when considering that photography work, while publicly available, is an art form and undoubtedly a very personal and precious one to the creators. It would be unwise to use someone artistic works as an example to prove my own points, as I run the risk of misinterpretation and misuse of content that I do not have permission to share.

The video below details more plans for this DA project.