Photos have become bookmarks to our memories.
I think it's more they've become illustrations to our conversations.
Sure. The ones we upload.
But my point is they're a different beast than photographs. Beautiful-photographs-taken-by-proper-photographers-who-understand-photography is not what we're dealing in here. Phone photos are a different phenomenon because they have quite a different purpose. And yet everyone knows a beautiful photograph when they see one, even if they can't articulate why it's beautiful. (That is the basis of the 'Shot On iPhone' billboard campaign consisting of only the image and the words 'shot on iphone': it tells you almost nothing.) Actually, most people don't know what photographers
do to make beautiful photographs - or that they do anything at all. They assume it must be the camera that makes the beauty. So you hear people say things such as, "ooh, nice photo! What phone have you got?... How much are those?" (At which point the camera-phone-maker sells another camera-phone.)
