The Social Photo Quotes

“The photograph, for all its promises of immortality, is always redolent of death.”
― Nathan Jurgenson, The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media

“To think of social photography as simply photography done with mobile devices or just as photos on social media is too easy, literal, and technology-centric. Instead, I describe social photography as a cultural practice; specifically, as a way of seeing, speaking, and learning. To understand our social world today means understanding the ubiquity of digital communications and social media, and this media is deeply constituted by the images we make and share. Any contemporary social theory should be, in part, a theory of social media, which should be, in part, a theory of social photography.”
― Nathan Jurgenson, The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media

“Warning of "the death of truth" is easy, but I find it more interesting to ask what accounts for continued camera-based truth telling? Though images are easily faked to no end, why do we still have so many that are widely believed?”
― Nathan Jurgenson, The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media