ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE NEW GENERATION OF ARTISTS
ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE NEW GENERATION OF ARTISTS

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this study is to highlight the emergence of new forms of artistic legitimation on the Internet, through the online galleries. This takes place together with the process of digitalization of the social interaction, for instance, the appearance of online communities, and also with the new status of photography, which is communicating identities. In my analysis, I used Bourdieu’s conceptual framework of “artistic field”, “social and symbolic capital”, “mediation”, “legitimation” to understand how the online gallery functions and how it generates these mechanisms of recognition, such as the online comments, the number of views, adding works to the “favorites” category or having a constant public of viewers. The online feedback (comments, opinions about photographs) plays a crucial role in shaping the online identity, but also in legitimating it through users who are defined as “instances of legitimacy”. Promoting artworks in virtual galleries becomes an opportunity for amateurs to know other artists and to become known, to share the same interests and to become a part of the greater community, but the final stake is to be recognized as an artist by others. So, the online galleries become sources of social capital and are empowered to legitimize its members as artists through specific mechanisms that I identified through my research.

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