The Semiotic Growth of Plant Photos
Kyung-Nan Koh (2026) “The Semiotic Growth of Plant Photos”
This paper explores how everyday practices of plant care and digital snapshot sharing contribute to the continuation and reconnection of social relations among a small group of plant enthusiasts. Specifically, the study focuses on moments in which individuals connected by a shared interest in plants exchange snapshot photos depicting stages of plant growth and thereby sustain their relationships. Everyday photo sharing extends beyond visual communication; it involves an affective and phatic performativity through which past social contacts are recalled and relationships are reaffirmed within the diachronic rhythm of human–nature relations. While photos initially function as indices pointing to the state of plants, through repeated exchange and the accumulation of time, they acquire an additional symbolic function in which memories of past gift-giving and care and the continuity of social relations are ritually evoked. To examine this process, the study considers sign growth through Peirce’s classification of signs. For hobbyists engaged in plant care, snapshots and their circulation operate as indexical traces that simultaneously point to acts of care and plant growth, while also symbolizing continuities of time, affect, and relationality. Over time, the indexical function of the photographs is maintained, while their repeatable forms and relational and affective interpretations are relatively heightened. Ethnographic cases show how events in plant growth such as the emergence of flower stalks, root establishment, and new shoots become occasions for participants to resume interaction and reaffirm their relationships. Thus, photos function as performative sites where the ecological rhythms of plants intersect with the social temporality of human relations, helping to sustain and reorganize interpersonal connections through changing media practices. Through this exploration, the study demonstrates how cultural semiosis can participate in the continuation and reorganization of social relations.