No, "1980's photo" would be an odd way to refer to a photo from 1980 specifically, because that's a possessive apostrophe.

Every account on reddit is a bot except you.

Only up to a point; air doesn't move as freely in snow as in, well, air, so you do eventually run out of oxygen if you can't create a sufficiently-large vent to the surface.

This article says that 70% of fully-buried avalanche victims die of oxygen loss within 35 minutes without an air pocket, and after 90 minutes, even air pockets aren't enough (unless they connect to the outside atmosphere).

Avalanche snow isn't a fluid; I'm pretty sure it isn't typically going to get forced down your throat, and definitely not into your lungs.

But if the snow is dense enough, you still will run out of air eventually.

According to this study, most people buried in avalanches do die because they run out of air, but it sounds like it's a lot slower than drowning, so there is a better chance for rescue if people get to you soon enough.