The Social Photo:On Photography and Social Media

Social photos are not primarily about making media but about sharing eyes,' Nathan Jurgenson writes in this important and timely book. Grappling with the significance of the billions of largely ephemeral images that inhabit social media, he persuasively delineates many of the key boundaries between what was previously understood to be photography and the contemporary image environment.

Timely...Jurgenson puts the social photo in a broader context of photographic history in a way that should appeal to even the sniffiest critic

[in The Social Photo], Jurgenson suggests that in today's ocean of images, the traditional way we have looked at pictures is outdated. He suggests a new way to understand them, one that is "less art historical and more social theoretical".

Jurgenson beautifully connects the newfound social documentary style with the history of photography and paints a picture of the similarities and differences of traditional photography and what he deems the new 'social photos.'

A lively and provocative read.

A refreshing respite from most of the commentary streaming from our devices today