Today, following the storm of the century a number of images have been posted to social networking sites to convey the destruction and devastating effects of this storm. The evolution of the camera has allowed a greater diffusion of images in real time connecting a cross cultural sharing of events. Franz Roh, in Mechanism and Expression views the instrument as a form of literacy; …”not to be able to handle a camera will soon be looked upon as equal to illiteracy”. How can this form of literacy be interpreted in relationship to two historical events, Hurricane Katrina in 2006 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012?
The story of Hurricane
Sandy is largely being told through photos, in part thanks to
Instagram, the popular photo-sharing app bought by Facebook this year.
More than 244,000 photos have been posted to Instagram with the
hashtag #sandy, according to app founder Kevin Systrom. More than
144,000 more have been posted under #hurricanesandy and another 23,000
photos under #frankenstorm.
"There are now 10 pictures per second being posted with the hashtag
#sandy - most are images of people prepping for the storm and images of
scenes outdoors," Systrom said in a statement that was posted to Poynter
.
During Hurricane Katrina, a category three hurricane compared to Sandy a category one the images transmitted through the airwaves consisted of those presented by photojournalist yet the message seems quite different.