Smartphone photography of everyday life. Reflection of a screening workshop of an ethnographic documentary

Abstract

How can we make the most of smartphone photography, which has become so familiar in our lives, as ‘documents of life’ that help us understand our lives, rather than just immediate and transient data/media? We organised and held a screening workshop for the ethnographic documentary film Transition, which was made using smartphone photography, and discussed the meaning and potential of smartphone photography with the workshop participants. In this paper, after introducing an overview of the film Transition, we will report on the background of the workshop's planning and design, the implementation process, and the participants' reactions. Finally, we will summarise the findings from this workshop on how to make the most of smartphone photography as key ‘documents of life’ that help us to understand our lives, rather than just immediate and transient data/media.