Found Photos

I think we underestimate the way that digital photography and the Internet are changing the way we live. People are documenting and publishing their lives at an unprecedented rate. How will it affect our children, to have 10,000 images from their childhood, instead of 100? Or to have 100 hours of video, instead of none, or two?

What got me thinking about these questions was this site of found photos (occasional image not safe for work). The author apparently collected them from file-sharing networks, which sounds like an arduous task without some automation. They all tell a (often strange) story, and when you remove them from their context are kind of fascinating.

I was immediately reminded of the Random Personal Picture Finder. It uses a simple Google hack to generate random photos, mostly from people’s personal collections (because of the way it uses common file names to search). In about five minutes, I generated my own set of 25 found photos (safe for work) that are, in their own way, strange or beautiful or funny or otherwise noteworthy. This is my favourite.