My anniversary is coming up soon: my wife and I got married on New Year’s Eve fifteen years ago. One of the things we did at the wedding was put a bunch of disposable cameras on the tables in the dinner, so people could take pictures of their tables, the dancing, etc.

This is the sort of situation Hipstamatic has in mind for its new disposable camera. Of course, the concept of a “disposable camera” app is a curious piece of semantics, as the app itself is not really “disposable” the way a physical camera is. (Or maybe it is; I haven’t used it yet.) In this case, though, disposable is a synonym for “social:” you create a “roll” for an event, make it accessible to friends, then all the pictures the group takes the “are sent to the same roll… [and] instantly exchanged once it’s finished.”

Hipstamatic Disposable from Synthetic on Vimeo.

I won’t dwell on the deeper implications of making “social” and “disposable” into related terms, nor the fact that the video sets forth the premise that photography is valuable because sometimes you’re too drunk to remember the night before. Maybe I’ll try out the program at some Christmas parties this weekend.