Aimee Eckford

Instagram: aimeeephoto

#happinessis

The technological advances of the past decade, seen within the expansion of social media, has produced a generation that are constantly attached to mobile phones and tablet devices. Causing continuous tapping and checking of notifications. Sharing an image through one of the world’s largest photo sharing platforms, Instagram can create floods of “likes” and comments.

This series of work explores the growing phenomena of instant gratification and anonymity, specifically the number of likes that can be received on Instagram, which can offer a blind rush of temporary happiness, which all too quickly disappears. These changing definitions of the nature of ‘happiness’ have been produced in collaboration with members of the public, by inviting written responses to photographs that are presented to them. The subjectivity expressed by a comment, rather than just a ‘like’ is examined when the connection between the text and the image is broken.