It’s not about the likes
What is photography? And I don’t mean the chemical process of film emulsion or the digital way of recording light using pixels. What does photography mean to you? The vast majority if not everyone actively photographing anything started because it intrigued us, because we enjoyed it. Because we wanted to express ourselves, tell stories, capture the world as it is or in a way that looks even better than reality. This applies to almost every genre of photography be it fashion, architecture, sports, photojournalism and many more.
Some of us hold on to it for a long time, some of us come and go either in intervals or just once and for all and some of us turn passion into a profession and make a living doing what they love. It has been like this ever since the invention of photography in the 19th century.
Photography was always available for people to enjoy. It was always expensive to get into but not really at the same time. You could just take the cheapest camera and start creating a meaningful body of work or you could spend large amounts of money on gear and just take pictures of your cat in the window. It doesn't matter. Each and every photographer enjoys a different aspect of it. Is it the final image for you or is it the journey? Do you love the thought behind each shutter click or is it all about mastering the technicalities of the camera?
This is what I love about photography, the ever expanding and diverse group of enthusiasts enjoying this relatively new medium capable of expressing ones view of the world in so many ways.
Now, I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man complaining about 'the social media' and 'the bloody internets'. I have a long way to go to be old and even longer to be grumpy (I hope at least). But social media have definitely changed the way people interact with photography, in general, these days. I get it. If it wasn't for Facebook, Instagram (or Google+ for all of those four users excluding Google employees) the number of people we could reach with our craft wouldn't increase exponentially. But it also made us forget why we got into photography in the first place. At least a little bit. True passion for photography and thought behind an image can easily disappear in this world of likes, comments, and followers. People tend to not shoot what they enjoy shooting but rather what will get them more followers. Or even worse, they don't seem to mind empty words on their posts but rather welcome it as a new comment to bypass the popularity algorithm and push their shot higher up in the "Recommendations" tab.
I have encountered this recently when Instagram changed its chronological order of images to an algorithm which shows me what images I might prefer to see first. As if a robot knew what images I enjoy the most.
I was out in the city, taking pictures of the people on Southbank on a beautiful hot summer day when I encountered this group of photographers. They were very friendly and seemed very enthusiastic about their photography. They had brought props, models, and had a rather large meetup. I was invited to join them and so I did.
But me being me I didn't stick around for long and wandered off towards the crowds of unsuspecting photo subjects to capture their everyday lives. Later on, I got a message from one of the guys from the group to join their 'session' on a specific app where they show each other's work.
It seemed like a cool idea at first but then I realized what was the main aim of the group. They would decide on a specific time of day when all of them would post their pictures on Instagram and immediately shared the link with the group. The rest would then go and 'like' every single one of those posts leaving a comment consisting of at least four words to give the post a bump up through the algorithm. Is this what photography has evolved into? Just machine-like liking and commenting to gather more followers?
To what end? Fame? All it takes to be forgotten in this over-saturated world is to stop posting for a while and you'll be replaced by another. Money or clients? Most of the biggest names in photography were active before the times of social media or just don't pay a significant attention to them. Look at Sebastião Salgado, Bresson, Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz, Sir Don McCullin... All it took for these people was hard work, dedication, patience and pretty much everything opposed to today's instant gratification. Or look at Vivian Mayer. All she ever did was taking pictures for the joy of it without even developing the film and thanks to her sheer enthusiasm generations of new photographers can learn from an outstanding body of work which was pretty much revealed only after her passing.
Don't chase the likes. You might end up forgetting why you loved your photo last week because it has been replaced by a newer one on the Instagram feed. Just go out and shoot. Enjoy photography and don't stress about the numbers too much.
