I’m talking about class photos today. School groups are flocking to the IMA. The exhibition Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey just opened, the Nugget Factory just interviewed Dawoud Bey for their iTunes U series, In the Factory. And recently we created a Flickr group called Class Picture Day.
Class Picture Day on Flickr
Groups on Flickr are often hard to seed. Like a lot of the digital content, an audience does not flock to a website, just because it is published. It takes a connection with an audience, an innovative or compelling idea, sometimes a bit of luck and great timing or me urging in a blog post. In our Class Picture Day group, a few IMA staffers (Despi, Noelle, Ruth and Sarah) were brave enough to post their own class photos, to initiate the process. I was amazed by their commitment to the cause and willingness to put their brilliant pictures from yesteryear online. I hesitated and used an excuse now echoed by many throughout the halls of the IMA: I can’t find my yearbook. Come on!
I and others continue to harass our colleagues to submit. It does take commitment – you have to find a yearbook or the actual photo, you have to scan the image, you have to login to Flickr and upload (you might even need to create a yahoo username to do this) – so I get the time involved. But, now that even I submitted an image, that excuse is no longer valid. I uploaded a terribly embarrassing image of myself this morning. I guess I am committed to the cause and I think you should be too.
As we all age, our class pictures lose that relevance of the pop culture and time period, so when they are viewed years later, well, they appear funny or outdated or slightly embarrassing. I personally love them. So I’m challenging our readers, find your Class Picture Day images and post them to our group. You’ll become part of an online community that was willing to laugh in the face of potential humiliation and just go for it.
Can you do it?
Filed under: Current Events, New Media
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
It’s not if you can do it…it is…WHEN will you do it?
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
Kung Fu!
You’ve still got it, Daniel Incandela.
October 2nd, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Obviously, this is a great idea to supplement the exhibition. I hope you get all kinds of submissions (including mine, however, my excuse isn’t that I can’t find my yearbook, it’s that I have to figure out how to get my picture scanned). But I think there could be a bit more to this, other than making fun of our do’s or clothes (although I certainly had a great example of 80s hair).
For example, the submissions could come with some more context into the teenage mind…as in “what were you thinking while this portrait was taken?” As the flashbulbs snapped during my session, I remember wondering “Will I even like college?” “How is it possible to get the exact same score on the SATs twice (which I did)?” “I’m editor of the school paper but can’t think of anything to write, how is that possible?” “I go to the tanning booth and am STILL white as a ghost…what the?” And so on.
Photos are just the tip of the iceberg!
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Responses to the (3) comments:
Despi: Completely agree.
Anonymous: Why thank you, you didn’t have to say that.
Jessica: I will gladly scan your photo for you, and yes, I like your idea of associating personal stories.
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:22 am
I’d be interested to see if anyone has the laser background that apparently haunted us for years:
http://laserportraits.tumblr.com/
Alas, mine are laser-free and remain unscanned.
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 am
David: I’m pretty sure MoMA has a scanner. Join us on Flickr!
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Wow Daniel… you haven’t changed a bit!
October 7th, 2008 at 12:01 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTiSzFp4arg&feature=related
October 7th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Nice find, on the youtuber, Anonymous. Because the crowd was so oddly interested I wasn’t surprised to see the Swedish(?) titles at the end. There’s no way that was shot in the land that created disco.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
It’s always nice to watch a good YouTube video at work. Thanks Anonymous.
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