Your life is my life

July 5, 2005 10:28 PM

Accidentally shared
(possibly NSFW)
posted by isol (37 comments total)

"I was searching through someones shared file list, and saw a folder named 'pictures'. I downloaded the folder and found 20 or so digital camera pictures of this persons life, taking pictures of himself, his friends etc. It made me wonder what else was out there, and after searching for more photos I found hundreds, thousands of them shared to everyone.


The world seems like a smaller place after finding all these photos and posting the ones that are worthwhile. I can see so many of the same emotions and situations that i've experienced over the years, unique to each person but similar and instantly recognizable."
posted by isol at 10:29 PM on July 5, 2005

If a picture is worth 1000 words, I wonder what the story behind this one is.

There's quite a few really good photos in there though.
posted by clevershark at 10:32 PM on July 5, 2005

I don't want to know the story behind this picture
posted by afu at 10:58 PM on July 5, 2005 [1 favorite]

Say what you will about LJ but at least that crowd played a little faster and looser with teh nudity. We need more boobies is what I'm saying.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:58 PM on July 5, 2005

Afu, I thought for sure your link would lead to this.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:05 PM on July 5, 2005

Nice title...
posted by Elpoca at 11:20 PM on July 5, 2005

This has been linked before but it's still awesome. Thanks for the reminder.
posted by dobbs at 11:29 PM on July 5, 2005

kevin- What? You don't take your friends out on the weeknds for bodage-equestrian meets?

This picture is my favorite so far, beatiful and absurd
posted by afu at 11:39 PM on July 5, 2005 [1 favorite]

its taking me hours to crawl through all of these
what's addictive about other peoples lives?
posted by isol at 11:41 PM on July 5, 2005

A heart-breaking twist of fate: John loses the marathon to the dreaded head-venting.
posted by hototogisu at 11:48 PM on July 5, 2005

I knew I'd seen it before. But it's fun.

Here we have the world's leading ping ponger trying to duck the very persistent ping pong paparazzi.

Here, I say, in your dreams, photog.

And this poor kid. Oh, boy, that picture better not get to this kid's school.

I can look through these for hours. I, too, am baffled at their appeal, isol.
posted by teece at 11:49 PM on July 5, 2005

This is way too freaking addicting for me. I like so many of these and imagine stories in my head.

Yes, I am crazy
posted by Eekacat at 11:58 PM on July 5, 2005

Maybe it's me, maybe it's today...but I don't see much in there in the way of photographic artistry which in these days of ubiquitous photography sites I sort of demand/desire if a site's going to pique more than my cursory interest.

And they're syphoned from other people -- yeah yeah, if someone's stupid enough to keep pictures in the file sharing folder then it's fair game I suppose -- and that is the only link of uniqueness about the pictures? Would it hold as much interest if it was called Boggo's PicBlog instead of Found Photos?

Syphoned, not found.

Callow, shallow..or something. Meh.
posted by peacay at 12:01 AM on July 6, 2005

What. The. Fuck.
posted by delmoi at 12:32 AM on July 6, 2005

My we are a voyeuristic bunch...

On preview:
peacay, the uniqueness lies in the fact that every photo is unique to an anonymous individual, and it stimulates our desire to observe the lives of others and to define them [said individuals experiences] in our own terms of experience, identifying with the photos so that we may believe that we are living the human existence and not wasting our lives, or at least that many individulas are wasting their lives accordingly, and we[the individual], are not alone
posted by jono at 12:35 AM on July 6, 2005

And isol:

thanks for keeping this insomniac occupied; this voyeur will be up for another hour... (3AM where I am)
posted by jono at 12:47 AM on July 6, 2005

Point taken jono. For me, usually it's vintage pictures of the unknown departed that stirs my wondering/musing interest. But everywhere I look on the internet, television & newspapers, there's a constant stream of unknowns engaged in the mundane. I'm not saying I hate the site, despite obliquely backhanding it, nor would I suggest that it's unfit as an FPP. Yes we are all voyeurs to one extent or another. I'm just not persuaded that this site rates such a high mention on the unique scale. But, enjoy..
posted by peacay at 1:38 AM on July 6, 2005

Some of the the juxtapositions alone make them sheer poetry. To me, it's really very wonderful.
posted by taz at 2:18 AM on July 6, 2005

Spooky. Today I was doing random Google Image searches, as I am wont to do, and I came across the very photo that delmoi labelled "What. The. Fuck."

http://www.lunch-break.co.uk/ballads/default.asp

It came with this rather cruel caption:

I work out so much because my penis is so small and my dad hit me when I was a boy and told me I'd grow up to be nothing.

He was right.


Not a bad body for and old boy, IMHO.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 2:19 AM on July 6, 2005

Like seeing a rabbit with a pancake on it's head.

My Grandpa told me "People are funny" and damned if he hasn't been proved right, again and again.
posted by dglynn at 3:20 AM on July 6, 2005

For some reason I always instantly find the titties with the hickies.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:42 AM on July 6, 2005

Wow, that site is addictive. Some of those shots are really amazing in their bad-yet-I-have-to-look-ness. They're like photographic poetry. Seriously, it would take years to learn how to capture the everyday with that kind of whimsy. Or maybe unlearn.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:02 AM on July 6, 2005

This one is awfully weird.
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 5:57 AM on July 6, 2005

Is that The Locust?
posted by bardic at 6:09 AM on July 6, 2005

Where's the site that would let you search for a random set of photos based on a common filename style used by various consumer-model digital cameras? It was like google images (possibly even used that) but only for personal photos people have published on the web (knowingly or not).
posted by odinsdream at 6:16 AM on July 6, 2005

Oh the real unglamorized not airbrushed hummmanity !
posted by elpapacito at 6:26 AM on July 6, 2005

elpapacito writes "Oh the real unglamorized not airbrushed hummmanity !"

Or "Where have you gone, Photoshop? A world turns its lonely eyes to you".
posted by nkyad at 6:42 AM on July 6, 2005

Where's the site that would let you search for a random set of photos based on a common filename style used by various consumer-model digital cameras?

Sadly removed from the Internets, but still available on archive.org.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:53 AM on July 6, 2005

I guess this guy lost the bet.
posted by wsg at 8:55 AM on July 6, 2005

Is that The Locust?
posted by bardic at 6:09 AM PST on July 6 [!]


I thought the same thing.
posted by afx114 at 9:44 AM on July 6, 2005

Actually a GIS on "mvc-" will turn up lots of random results (it's the standard Sony camera picture name I think). "DSCN" will also yield lots of random goodness.
posted by clevershark at 10:22 AM on July 6, 2005

Oh man, I been there.
posted by Smedleyman at 12:03 PM on July 6, 2005

Does anyone know what this thing is?
posted by obvious at 12:45 PM on July 6, 2005

Sadly removed from the Internets, but still available on archive.org.

I duplicated the functionality here. I expanded most of the search criteria, so it should be chock full of results.
posted by rafter at 1:51 PM on July 6, 2005

Also along the same lines
posted by isol at 2:34 PM on July 6, 2005

dont look up
posted by vaportrail at 11:38 PM on July 6, 2005

The world seems like a smaller place after finding all these photos and posting the ones that are worthwhile. I can see so many of the same emotions and situations that i've experienced over the years, unique to each person but similar and instantly recognizable

Oh the real unglamorized not airbrushed hummmanity !

Some of the the juxtapositions alone make them sheer poetry.

Seriously, it would take years to learn how to capture the everyday with that kind of whimsy. Or maybe unlearn.

isol, elpapasito, taz, Civil_Disobedient, thank you for articulating so well what is mesmerizing about these images.
posted by nickyskye at 9:15 PM on July 7, 2005