Dr Adam Drazin
IRCHSS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin
drazina@tcd.ie
Dr David Frohlich
Research Professor, Digital World Research Centre, University of Surrey
d.frohlich@surrey.ac.uk

Good Intentions: the Social Framing of Photographs in the Home

This paper looks at the context of materialised memories – the consumption and framing of photographs. Ethnographic work in British homes unearthed a range of ways to consume and display photos. We propose that these modes of framing mirror the relationships within and surrounding the household, and locate them in short-hand time frames characteristic of the social exchanges appropriate to those relationships. Thus we suggest that framing is surrounded by a sense of moral goodness. Through framing, people flag their collective good intentions to conduct relationships appropriately over time, without capitulating either to the risk of over-imposing nor of neglect. The work was conducted at and by Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Bristol, in order to inform the development of technologies in the field of audiophotography, and may raise interesting issues and questions about the role about this kind of work for product design in a commercial field.