With the rise of the “photo dump”, it is tempting to proclaim that Instagram, the notoriously curated social media platform is becoming less staged and more real. For so long we have criticized each other for faking and photoshopping Instagram posts to put forth an image of perfection. 

This seems deeply hypocritical - we complain about how overly curated Instagram posts are, yet nobody seems to try to break that norm.

Until the rise of the photo dump. Although I am sure most people know what this is- and have probably been a creator of one- for the sake of those who may be unfamiliar I will explain the concept -  it’s not a complicated one. A “photo dump” is essentially when somebody posts a collection of up to 10 photos, which may or may not be related to one another, in one post.

The classic “end of summer dump,”for example, showcases 10 of the photos that you think best represents your incredibly interesting summer. In keeping with the not so glamorous name, the photo dump has become a place where people post a bunch of photos that are less perfectly curated, in favour of more everyday items or photos the poster thinks capture a fun memory.

Admittedly, I believe the posts are more personal and sentimental because they can capture more genuine aspects of life. They capture the beauty in everyday moments or regular emotion, achieving something more authentic than the classic Tumblr photo shoots we are all used to on Instagram. In order to capture the types of photos that are typically added in “photo dumps”, you have to pay attention to the world around you which can promote a good message to see the beauty in little things. Especially considering how flashy or dramatic society can be, it can be refreshing to acknowledge how small moments can bring us joy. Seen through the rise of BeReal -  an app where the entire purpose is to capture quotidian moments in our days - BeReal may be the manifestation of our desire to transform our social media contributions to something more authentic or representative of our genuine lives. Much like the “photo-dump”, BeReal illustrates this evolution on social media that may help to remind us what everyday looks like and although it doesn’t eliminate the possibility of comparison online, at least it may give us a more realistic standard. This being said, I would also argue that this shift from the sterile, perfect photo to a collection or “photo-dump” still poses the same problem of inauthenticity and may even create new ones.

First of all, a “photo dump” is never going to be a collection of photos that genuinely captures any individual’s life. Nobody is including a photo of themselves sitting on their couch scrolling on their phone or a photo of a gray, uninteresting sky. These photos aren’t up to the standards of Instagram and the “photo dump” is not immune to these socially constructed criteria. Instead, we are going to look through the hundreds of photos we have taken and choose the most beautiful or the ones we look the best in. Then instead of taking the absolute best photo, we pick ten of the best and put them together and call it a casual Instagram post because “photo dumps” must be casual right? I think it is precisely this assumption that is the problem. We have dealt with curated social media pages for as long as Instagram has been in use, so these posts are nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, the “photo dump” may be a slight improvement in authenticity. What I find off-putting about these, is that everyone seems to have accepted that we have succeeded in making Instagram ‘casual’ and what we are seeing are people’s real lives. It is almost as though the veil has come off of perfectly staged photos and we can all pick those out as being unrealistic depictions of our lives. When I see a photo of two people walking along a beach smiling “candidly” at each other with their hair perfectly blown back by the window, I acknowledge this probably took a hundred takes and is not a fair comparison to anybody’s real day. But when I see a bunch of photos that look less staged and are posted under the guise of a “photo dump”, it is more difficult for me to remember this also took a hundred takes. Or at the very least, it was one of a hundred options to be included in the dump. Even the name “photo dump” implies a sort of casual carelessness in selecting what to share to the world, when in reality it was created through hours of deliberation, and likely consultation, about which photos are the best. I don’t know where this leaves us or if there is a way out of the dilemma of inauthenticity on a platform where this precedent of perfection has been set.

 All I know is that we should be wary of how we consider “photo dumps” to be accurate representations of our lives. Or at the very least, let’s judge them just as critically as we would any other Instagram post.

Header By: Valerie Letts