By, Kelly Cwik, Staff Writer
Many students at Manhattan College have created Instagram accounts dedicated to capturing their college memories. What makes these photos special is that they are taken using apps like Dispo or digital cameras to give an old-fashioned style feel.
Senior marketing major Paige Davis, started posting photos in September using a 2003 Kodak digital camera that was gifted to her by her sister in February 2021.
“It just sat in the box. I was like ‘What am I gonna do with this?’ I was like, ‘I didn’t really want this, like okay,’ and then September came around and I was like I’m gonna use it” Davis said. “I’m going to document everything. Our senior year is going to be documented.”
Davis wanted to make Instagram casual again and began posting every photo she took.
“We can look back and just have those memories and have them timestamped. I’m not just posting three pictures I think I look good in,” Davis said. “I’m posting every single picture that we took. And we just thought it was more fun.”
Senior childhood education major Emma Piazza, uses an app called Dispo to take pictures with her friends. One of her favorite parts of the app is not being able to see the photos until the next day. Similar to Davis, Piazza likes the aspect of not worrying about what her and her friends look like, but instead enjoying the moment.
“I think sometimes taking pictures you get so caught up in ‘Oh, I need to see right after,’ ‘what do I look like?’ And you kind of are forgetting just that you’re capturing memories,” Piazza said. “So I kind of like that. This is only about capturing memories. No one was worried about what they look like.”
Piazza has noticed that her friends are excited to get into the pictures.
“It’s less about the aesthetic and more just about I think everyone loves getting in the pictures” Piazza said. “And like every time I pull my phone out, my friends are always so excited to get in the photo.”
Art history and digital media art professor Lili Kobielski, has lots of experience in the field. Right now Kobielski mostly uses a digital camera, but for a while she used a 35 millimeter rangefinder in black and white. Her work has focused on documenting people and telling their stories.
“I always think it’s legitimate to take pictures all the time, to take pictures of your friends, your family, your life. You know, I think that’s incredibly valuable,” Kobielski said. “And it’s also an absolutely legitimate career and you can make a good living and you can travel the world and you can meet interesting people.”
Davis is glad she started documenting her college life and encourages other students to do the same.
“I didn’t understand why people like taking so many pictures or anything like that,” Davis said. “But now in the space I’m in, I’m so happy I did it. And I hope that anybody else will document their time in college because it’s amazing.”