With Alex.
A good thing that happened on the Internet. This week’s photo set is of a friend, Alex. We met online and wound up shooting together a fair bit. An online friend became a real friend and community. I’ve met many people in her life that are important to her, spent time with them, worked with them, laughed with them. Thats the promise of the internet I want. One like or message can change the path of your life. There’s something incredibly beautiful about that. This week Alex posted some older photos she and I took together with some really wonderful words. The first time we really hung out. And she almost didn’t show up! That morning was a struggle! What amazing thing that one small choice can lead to so much. So much good. That post reminded me I’ve never really shared the bulk of the work. So here it is. May the force be with you. And if it weren’t crystal clear, members get access to 50+ images from this shoot. They’re worth it. Sign up.
I frequently find myself thinking and writing about the state of social media today. Lamenting the bygone days of building a strong following and community. For a while it felt like a god send. I got mildly popular on Flickr, then Tumblr and grew a modest following on Instagram. Every photographer was pouring energy and imagery into Instagram, and were getting real jobs because of it. Not as influencers, but by being discovered by art and creative directors at ad agencies that used it as a discovery tool. Before the phenomenon of TikTok and Instagram reels. This slide towards goofy, inane content, meant solely to keep you on your device longer, making you consume more ads and earning the platforms more money. I’ve mentioned before, the article by Dr. Cory Doctorow, TikTok’s Enshittification
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
It’s a brilliant piece and it’s happening all around us. I thought that possibly I was almost alone in the recognition of this, and how it’s shaping our current world. Maybe I was just getting old, and failing to jump on the newer, better bandwagon. Failing to create engaging content with flashy video and posting five times a day. But no. There really is something happening here. In recent days and weeks, my awareness and consciousness has been inundated with similar voices. Threads if rife with complaints about instagram and how they’re changing. Adam Mosseri, Insta’s CEO has been fairly vocal in the opinion that followers no longer matter, that the engagement of your content is king. And it really is, for THEM. The more insane crap that gets posted, the longer people mindlessly scroll and suck up paid ads. Meta reported over $40 BILLION in profit last year. Instagram doesn’t give a shit about our little still photographs. And thats a damn shame.
So, while we’re treading water, looking, watching, waiting, I’m seeing more and more signs of other people waking up and trying to break down what’s happening. Its reassuring to find similar points of view and influential people pondering the same things. I stumbled across this talk last week with Jack Conte, CEO of Patreon from SXSW titled Death of the Follower and the Future of Creativity on the Web. Adam digs into this concept, and the big take away is that as a creative, as a maker, the old platforms are quickly becoming useless. Especially with the rise of Ai, they’re going to be absolutely flooded with shit. Ai generated content that will ultimately break the internet as we know it, making these tools like Instagram, that used to be so useful, nearly useless for real artists. The signal to noise ratio is going to get absolutely wrecked. Conte goes on to say that platforms like Patreon and Kajabi, and SquareSpace and Substack, places where creators can post freely and monetize their work, are the future. The concept that all you need are 1000 true fans. First put forth by Kevin Kelly (https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ ) Fans that will subscribe and purchase art, and pay a monthly fee to support what you’re doing. Many artists and writers, photographers are able to make a living doing what they love because of platforms like these.
But what will become of the discovery aspect? The top of the funnel, that directs eyeballs to your work? Its become nearly impossible to be seen on Instagram let alone build a following. Where will that discovery happen? I believe there will be a place for a new, (or old?) type of social network that eschews algorithms and data mining. That respects the individual and their journey of discovery. I remember going down deep rabbit holes of finding a piece of art I liked, looking at everything else the artist made, finding their web page, checking out the stuff THEY liked and who their biggest fans were, interacting with them. A very different experience than just mindlessly swiping on what the app thinks I want to see. Its become so incredibly toxic.
I’m participating in the beta for FotoApp and so far it looks promising. An actual place for photography. No algorithm, no selling of data, no advertising. Fingers crossed.
Which brings me to Rick Rubin.
I thought I was going to get through a blog post without mentioning Rick Rubin, but alas... I just listened to his recent episode with Chris Dixon. Chris has a new book out and it (and the podcast) beautifully illustrates all this. The history, present state, and possible future of the internet. Really hit the nail on the head. The crux being, that everything is currently owned and gate kept by five big tech behemoths. That the early promise of a free and egalitarian internet has been squashed and coopted by these massive corporations that do what corporations do best, put their profits above everything else. I highly recommend his book, Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet Wherein, Chris describes how block chain technology and open source, decentralized networks, could get us back to the promise that the net held in the early days. Where no one owns our voice, no one can simply shut it down with the flick of a switch. Where we own our own content and our own path. Past as prologue. And yet another reason to be optimistic about the future.
Though its hard to imagine that anything that comes to the fore today will have the same kind of gravity that Instagram had. I think people are burned out and kind of shut down. The photo world is in a slump, the vibrant scene of art models and photographers has fallen off a cliff. Many of my friends just aren’t creating right now. We’re tired. Maybe something good will come along soon to wake us up.
Anyway, thats enough rambling.
I’m really curious to see what the future brings. Until then, keep making shit. Make it for yourself. Make the art you want to see. Show it to people who care. Whether its 30 or 30,000.
