2026 Silver Winner
Conceptual
Lost Focus
Entrant: Ruilin Mao
2026
Silver
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CategoryConceptual
Class / SubcategoryInterface & User Experience
Interactive Design (IxD)
Interactive Design (IxD)
Country / Region
United States
Photography is now an important part of our daily life. We record our moments, trips, and feelings with photography. But as tools like phones have become easier and more powerful, photos have become highly repetitive: the same location, the same color, and the same feeds. We gained convenience and better image quality, but we lost the human, familial core of photography. We have more images than ever, but they carry way less meaning. When film was still widely used, each photo was handled with care. From loading the film roll to developing the negatives, those rituals gave images historical and emotional weight. As technologies made photography easier, that meaning has faded, and photography became quick and casual. Social media pushed the focus toward polished results and sameness, not the experience. I want to study this shift and use what I learn to guide a design project.
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