THE ART OF THE PHOTO DUMP:
Gen Z and the aestheticization of, well, everything
Isabella Xu
I’ve all but mastered the art of Gen Z instagram photography. Going about my week, I identify a mundane, yet chic cluster of objects: typically a café drink, a book I’m reading, or fresh flowers I just picked up. But I don’t just whip out my phone and snap a photo. No, composition is key.
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Sliding the zoom option on my camera, I set it anywhere between 1.75x and 2x zoom. I capture the cluster of objects, and nothing else. My photo lends no clues toward what my surroundings are like. The viewer’s gaze must solely be trained in the three objects I choose to photograph.
This style of photography is seemingly universal amongst my generation. Fashion influencers like Matilda Djerf use it in nearly every carefully curated photo dump: a November 10 post featured a macro photo of the foot of a wine glass atop a cherub napkin. It’s conspicuously effortless, with the wine glass simply offset from the edge of the napkin as if to say, “I just set down my glass and casually decided to snap a pic.”
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Yet, nothing about these photos are casual. Everything is carefully curated to project an image of wealth. Djerf’s post is a subtle way of indicating to her followers that she was out eating an expensive meal. After all, where else could someone get their hands on printed single-use napkins?
Still, it’s a welcome contrast to the plainly staged photoshoots that dominated Instagram in the 2010s. There’s a limit to how many YouTubers can pose in front of the infamous Melrose Avenue angel wings before we respond with a collective groan.
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Certains remnants of 2016 Instagram still remain, however.
Another one of Djerf’s posts features a slide of a black and tan suede Ralph Lauren Polo ID Purse, gray sweater, matching gray gloves, and two “effortlessly” staggered wallets conspicuously poking out of the purse. This style of photos, characterized by designer items set atop a flat surface has been dubbed the “flatlay.”
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It’s an evolution of a photo style that gained popularity on millennial-dominated Instagram. In millennial hands, object placement remained meticulously posed: items never overlapped, but rather fit together like a jigsaw puzzle with half-inch margins.
Gen Z’s take on the flatlay reflects our generation's general shift toward projecting casualness (the sincerity of this apathy is of lesser importance).
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This trend likely emerged as pushback to dominant criticisms of social media as “fake” and “staged”. As corporate media entities like Buzzfeed fell and gave way to individual personalities like Emma Chamberlain, our photography styles followed suit, reflecting a newfound desire to project organicness.
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But as public discourse turns against any indicators of a photo being inorganic, it requires individuals to integrate their aesthetics into everyday life. It’s a perspective forwarded in platforms like TikTok, with users like Elliot Duprey asserting that “the coolness and chicness of [the ‘eclectic grandpa’ style, a fashion subgenre that gained popularity on the app] comes only from a lived-in and serene essence that someone who has lived a full life acquires with their clothes.”
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Aesthetics have grown so much in governing our everyday lives that now, not only must you project your aesthetic, you must also live it. Social media is no longer restricted to posted photos. In every carefully-careless photo dump, it infringes upon our day-to-day lives. That is the Gen Z gaze.
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Cover photo by Matilda Djerf on Instagram
