Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practising?
The practitioner I have chosen to analyse is Zach Lower, a photographer and videographer out of Brighten UK. Lower publishes his work to both his Instagram (@zachlower) which has 34.2K followers and Twitter (@itszachlower) which has 390 followers. His first Instagram post was on June 10th 2012, but on Vimeo Lower’s work can be found to go back to September 2010. Many of Lower’s earlier works focused on documenting skateboard and BMX tricks, while more recent work focuses on his travels and has a clear aesthetic. By going through Lower’s works it becomes apparent he uses many devices for his work ranging from an iPhone, to a Sony A7sii, and a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.
What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)
The video I have chosen is titled ‘no sleep nyc’ and can be found here or seen above.
With the photo or video, you are examining when was it produced (date)?
The video was published on Lowers Instagram on March 11 2020, but as Lower states in the videos caption the footage is a montage from the past three days. All footage was taken in New York City.
How was the photo or video authored?
This specific video was captured using a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k, which is apparent because of Lower’s use of the hashtag #bmpcc6k. Due to the videos montage / vlog style it could be assumed that in capturing each individual clip Lower did not specifically plan to capture them, but rather took video of whatever seemed aesthetically appealing and visually engaging. Not only is the video edited in a montage style but also intentionally edited to slightly mimic analogue video, with what could be described as a visual flickering or dust disturbance.
How was the photo or video published?
From what I can see the video was only distributed on Lower’s Instagram, not his Twitter or Vimeo. The video was prepared for publication by including the videos title, the caption “love this busy city but looking forward to heading home tomorrow, put together a little snippet together of my shakiest shots from the past 3 days walking round the city lel”, various hashtags such as #nyc, #newyork and #sunset, as well as citing the artist for the music included.
How was the photo or video distributed?
Due to the video appearing solely on Lower’s Instagram its means of distribution are rather limited in comparison to if it appeared among multiple platforms. Although even with this limited distribution Lower still utilises nearly ever chance to spread the videos reach; using the previously mentioned hashtags, implementing the geo-location of “New York, New York”, and tagging the artist of the music used.
Outside of Lower’s choices on how to distribute the video, users of Instagram are given a few affordances of their own regarding distribution. Users have the ability to save the video to their own private collection, embed the video in their own story and subsequently linking back to Lower, and share the videos link on their own social media or privately to other people with the share button. While this information is only available to the account holder, Lower himself, it can still be assumed that some of these methods of re-distribution have accrued.
References;
Lower, Z 2020, @itszachlower, Twitter, viewed 23 April 2020, <https://twitter.com/itszachlower?lang=en>.
Lower, Z 2020, @zachlower, Instagram, viewed 23 April 2020, <https://www.instagram.com/zachlower/>.
Lower, Z 2020, @zachlower, Vimeo, viewed 23 April 2020, <https://vimeo.com/zachlower>.