I've been speaking with a few friends about our photography and where we see it going. In doing this I've found myself being lost and in being lost I've found myself copying other photographers and I don't understand why, or should I say I didn't understand why. It's great that as photographers we search the world for people who can inspire us, and I'm always looking for inspiration mostly in books, but this past 6 months I've found myself looking for it in all the wrong places and it's here that I've found myself heading down the dark rabbit hole.
I spent 2017 shooting with my Fujifilm X-T2 and 56mm F1.2 lens and not allowing anyone else compromising my vision and style. This year I switched cameras and focal length, don't get me wrong I love my Fujifilm X-E3 and I in no way do I regret changing cameras but why the hell did I change my focal length and was it really in my best interest. I don't think so, I think I was seeing what other photographers were doing and then I went down that dark evil rabbit hole that is instagram (and F you instagram I won't use a capital I as you’re NOT important), I started doing the one thing I swore I would never do.
I wanted to get more followers, and I started taking the kind of photos that instagram likes and not the photos I like and in doing this my numbers and likes started to grow, but I wasn't that happy with the photos. Putting myself in this position would also have its downsides, the biggest of which was when I posted a photo I loved and it didn't get many likes or comments, I ended up asking myself why, well it's simple really, nobody on instagram takes the time to look at a photo, it's a case of scroll and click. Until I started to understand this more, I would question if I were a good street photographer or not and let me tell you that's not a good place to be. A friend of mine Janice was in the same place as I, and she did something interesting with instagram, she started another account for quick bad photos taken on her iPhone and what do you know those photos are getting way more likes and the page has more followers than her real page with her wonderful portrait work, now if this doesn't show how pointless social media is I don't know what will, but people are still going to use it and continue to tell me it's important, please stop telling me this, it's NOT important and it never will be. I use to have safari set to open on both instagram and facebook, I have no idea why I did this I would check both places at least ten times hour, I mean think about that ten times hour and I know some of you will be thinking that's crazy, I guarantee you do the same and most of the time you won't notice you're doing it. How bad is it that it's become second nature, next time you’re sat with a friend watch how frequently they check their phone, I mean do we even listen to each other in person anymore.
As you can tell I get so angry with social media and I'm sick of all the pressure that's placed on us, you must use social media if you want to succeed in the world, what a load of crap, I don't believe this for one second, do you? And be honest with yourself when you answer said question.
You succeed in the world by being the best at what you do
Its time for me to do the street photography I love and fuck instagram, in-fact fuck all social media it's not important, let me say that again, It's not important and just so I hear myself; IT'S NOT IMPORTANT. Don’t forget social sites come and go, how many of you remember myspace, trust me when I say facebook and instagram won’t be around forever.
Every time I pick my camera up I will shout out loud….SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T IMPORTANT
I'm a street photographer who loves to shoot wide open, always have done and you know I don't ever see this changing. I love the Fujifilm 56mm F1.2 lens and I love the look the F1.2 gives my photos; I always felt my photos stood out from the crowd. I don't know many photographers who shoot this lens wide open on the streets, I always knew what look I would get when I headed out and doing this helped me; I never really felt lost. Now I've been shooting with the 23mm F2 lens this past 6 months and most cases I've been using it at F8 I just don't feel it's me. I have gotten some amazing photos from shooting like this, but are they me and do they fit with the look I'm after or was I doing this to fit in on instagram, if I'm honest with myself I did it fit in and grow my following, boy I really did lose my way. The 56mm went back on my camera and boy it feels great; it feels like me. I will continue to use the 23mm just not as much as I have been. I'm going back to capturing moments and characters from the streets of London and Cambridge.
As for social media, I want to share my work, but it must be my work and not what I think you (yes you the reader) want to see. I really don't care if you like my work or you don't, at the end of the day it's my work and the important thing is I like it. So from this day forward, I won't be sending photos to friends asking whether they like them, I don't care if they like them or not. I won't be waiting and looking for people to click like on social media, I just don't care anymore and I can't tell you how good it feels to think like this. I have now removed all social media from my iPhone and iPad, and I shall limit myself to just hour a day to look at my friends work.
Social media has become lost; people are now using it for all the wrong reasons. It has gone from being where people can connect with family and friends and feel safe to look how many followers I have, the social side has disappeared. Don't get me wrong I know that there are people still using it for the right reasons, but I think we can all agree that most have twisted it for their own agenda. Then there's the company's running these sites that use them to collect information on us the users, passing that info on to anyone who will pay for it. When facebook first started there was no advertising now the site is covered in ads, many of us have resulted to using ad blockers it's all getting out of hand and there is just no end in sight. It's time we all took a step back and look at what social media really is, it's just media there is nothing social about it.
We don't use, we abuse it.
