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DOUG BATTENHAUSEN THINKS all our advances in cell-phone cameras and photo-sharing technology haven’t made our pictures better, but rather more sterile. We all know how to get the perfect selfie now, with just the right filter — but to him, that’s boring.
What Battenhausen is interested in, and has been collecting since 2010 on his blog “Internet History,” are photos that are beautifully amateurish and capture strange moments.
To find these types of photos, Battenhausen mines the forgotten reaches of the internet, particularly defunct photo accounts on sites like the (now deleted) Webshots, Flickr, or Photobucket.
“If there’s one rule I try to keep to all the time,” Battenhausen says. “It’s that I try to find pictures that have been abandoned. If you’re still actively using your photosharing website, I don’t want to encroach on that. Through ‘Internet history,’ I think I’m giving a second life to orphans.”
But Battenhausen doesn’t just take any old photo. He has a remarkable eye for finding ones that can evoke some emotion. He describes them as sometimes funny, sometimes bad, but usually photos that give him a feeling of “comforting sadness.”
The photos on his site, which were once featured in an exhibit at the Rhode Island School of Design, are both bizarre and everyday at the time. Perhaps the best word to describe them is wistful.
See the photos below, which have a meditative quality when you scroll through them:
Photos: Doug Battenhausen/Internet History
By Nathan McAlone for Business Insider
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The hot babes number doesn’t seem to be working
They went bust
Did ya remember to drop the 0?
the company went tits up during the bust.
Yeah the arse fell out of the industry.
There’s a good reason these photographs were left to be forgotten.
I can hardly contain myself with all the emotion these photos have provoked in me.
I too am emotional. It is a lot of pressure and difficult for me at this stage in my life, but to be honest I think it’s worth it. The image of SpongeBob particularly has loosened several of my teeth.
Smokes lets go.
F&ck off randy!!
What the hell Is this , odd and erie pictures that Include two people fighting a cake a tv and other completely random normal everyday run of the mill stuff … Where the hell did you even find this nut job from and quiet possible the most pointless hobby I’ve ever seen . Basically I collect ransom picture of no signifance or purpose what so ever.
Probably should have used commas in my post there . An image of two people fighting a cake and a tv would be quite interesting
It would appear you also collect ransom photos but who am I to judge, we all need a hobby. FYI I would watch that fight.
Doug…you’re trying to make crap photos appear deep and artful……it’s not working….they’re just crap photos.
At 82 mph, taking photos of your dash, I think he’ll be meeting his buddy Jesus pretty soon!!
SpongeBob the things of nightmares!!
The photo credit is wrong. He did not take the photos. He merely harvested them. By rights the original photographers should be credited.
what a load of claptrap for a sat morn !
The comments on this article have made my day! Hilarious!!
Obviously he isnt much of a photographer if he has to go trawling thru forgotten shite on the internet instead of taking some pictures of his own
An open letter to Doug:
Dear Dough
Jesus man, get a life or better still buy your own camera and stop been so bloody nosey pooching around other peoples accounts.
Yours sincerely
Gracie
NOTHING TOO WEIRD?
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