Photobombing: Mobility, Humour and Culture

The photobomb, in name and practice, is a phenomenon of Web2.0 – in the sense of being a participatory and read/write Web. This paper contributes to the academic discourse concerning the anthropology of the Internet. Photobombing exploits the ready availability of channels for individual expression created with writability, the importance of user-generated humour for the Web and theubiquity of digital photography devices. The issues of the visual and of humour
are both problematic territory for academic research and, despite their significance
within the context of digital culture, have received little focused attention in this
context (Gillispie, 2003). By drawing upon an observational methodology we
construct a typology of photobombs drawn from a variety of sources to understand
the simplicity and subtlety of humour being employed as well as the way in which
the photobomb – as a discrete artefact - is embedded and interlinked with other
(digital) cultural practices. The approach employed here for photobombs offers insight into the potential for the wider application of typological methods in the search and retrieval of (digital) visual objects