Photography and Social Media - The Constant Desire To Be Noticed.

So, you just took this incredible shot on your latest adventure. You sit down, open your laptop or iPad and you behind to add the final touches to your edit and you think, “Damn, this is gonna be a such a great shot to post”. You hit upload, create a catchy caption, add the right hashtags and you wait in anticipation of all your photographer friends to comment saying how sic of a shot it is, your mom’s friends to say how talented you are, and the random bot account telling you to submit your photo to some shady account that you ignore - yet, maybe it ends up with twenty-something likes and the only comment you get is the shady account. You sit on the edge of your bed and wonder what went wrong. Was it the wrong time to post? Is the algorithm broken? Do I suck as a photographer? Maybe if I shot it a different way, it would have attracted more attention.

Sound familiar? Maybe not every detail, (like the random bot accounts, like seriously, what’s up with that??) but to some degree I know I cannot be alone in feeling like I’ve put in too much work into an Instagram post for it to only get seen by a handful of people. At one point, this was something I drastically cared about. Leading right up to the pandemic, I had a full blow schedule of when I would post, how I would post, and a saved list of hashtags to be seen. I thought I was doing social media the right way. As I continued down this rabbit hole, there was one thing that I noticed - I enjoyed photography less. I needed my work to be seen. This realization hit me about six months ago and I began to stop posting so much - because, at the end of the day, it’s just social media.

Seeing the notification on our phones stimulates the brain and acts as if someone complimented us on what we were wearing that day. When they come in at rapid fire speed, as they sometimes can, it feels good. It feels good to see that our work is seen by others, maybe even shared to have more people see it. I’d be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, too. However, after it’s posted and the next day passes, then what? You gotta try to do it all over again. It ends up becoming this endless cycle and maybe you begin to feel burned out and when you do go and shoot photos, you’re only thinking of that next “banger” shot, when you might have missed several other shots that you enjoyed. The priority might switch from what you love to take photos of vs what your social media followers interact with. And that sucks.

I noticed this within myself starting (tumbling down the rabbit hole) as the pandemic hit. I just had my photography shown off in my first art gallery and had another one lined up. Like everything else in the world at the time, that second gallery went on hold and I turned to the only place I could when everyone was stuck inside, and more importantly, glued to their phones. I tried to get creative with some shots here, but shot for the purpose of catching other people’s attention. Sadly, it worked: I was able to get a ton of likes and comments on photos along with one huge rush of dopamine. In the time of lock down and when there was no secure timeframe of when it would be safe to go back into galleries to present my art, this gave me that feeling of being noticed. The unfortunate side of this was that the burst of dopamine ended rather quickly, leaving me to recreate that feeling again, and again, and again.

What separates this from the gallery in person were the conversations that I had with other artists and spectators that came to appreciate the work that everyone did. It was lively, full of conversations and connections to be made, in other words: the human experience. Social media can't always replicate that. Sure, compliments and the number of likes feel good in the moment, but they may not leave a lasting impression. I still remember someone coming up to me and looking at a photo I took of the station in Downtown Austin and he said, “This feels like an iconic shot. If you’ve lived in Austin, there’s a good chance you’ve stood right where you took this. Iconic.” I remember that like it happened yesterday, I couldn't tell you that I remember compliments given on my last post on Instagram. The human element - the actual interaction - felt more satisfying and rewarding.

Now, all this might feel pretty obvious. Some people have social media purely to see other’s posts and they don't even post themselves. Everyone uses it differently and we have seen how impressionable it can be, in positive and negative aspects. For me, this grew into a negative experience. Once I realized that I was chasing that high of getting those likes and getting the attention that I so craved for my work, or feeling validated for my skills as a photographer, I had to dial back a bit. After my trip to Las Vegas in February, I took a bit of a break. I took about three months off from posting. I posted stories, which disappear after 24 hours and at the time you couldn't like them, and only did that on occasion. I focused on my craft and enjoying the photos that I took, especially shooting 35mm film, and printing them out for myself. The art that I create is first and foremost for myself. Its not for the random people that follow me, I create what I feel and what I want to create. I know I cannot be alone in feeling like I was trapped, forced to entertain or seek approval from people that I don’t know or to the structure of social media itself - which doesn’t really hold any value in the real world. Unless this is turning into that episode of Black Mirror, ‘Nosedive’, then it doesn’t really matter.

Posting to social media should be fun, it shouldn't feel alike a chore or that your reputation as a creator or artist depends on it. That takes away the fun of it and most people aren't even reviving any form of income for it. At it’s core, it’s just a platform. I let it take over, constantly scrolling, constantly seeking that attention, and it wasn't doing me any good. On top of that, seeing everyone else’s work became soul crushing. “Why am I not doing that?” “Why doesn’t my photo look that good?” “Damn, they got more likes on that than I did.” It just became too much. Whether its obessesing over the amount of attention I'd receive from a post or how well other photographers seemed to be doing, I got it in my head that I’m just not as good. In the end, I wasn't doing anything about it. Just moping around wondering if I was actually good at what I do. So, I finally decided to put my attention else where.

As I stated, I started shooting what I wanted, keeping a lot of photos to myself. I started appreciating the art I create by printing out more of my images, or adding them to a portfolio, whether it be physical or on my website. I also wanted to get back into writing more, expressing myself and telling my stories and experiences - so I turned to this blog. Whether I’m reviewing a lens, taking part of Fujifilm’s 10 Years of X Mount Monthly themes, or just writing about what’s on my mind - I’d rather do this and put my energy into these ‘journal entries’. It’ll be cool to look back on all these entries and see how I was feeling and how I was expressing my thoughts. This will be a positive experience for me since it’s helping me hone in on writing (regardless if I’m good or not), I’m getting my thoughts down on the page, or in this case, on the computer screen.

I don’t need the attention for what I do. I love being able to print out my own work and enjoy the way I shoot photos. It took me a while to realize what kind of hold social media had on me and how ridiculous it was that I let it dictate what I photograph because of how many likes it would get. If you relate to this in any way, I highly recommend deleting the app, going out, and finding what you like to shoot and just do it for yourself. Print out your photo, frame it, hang it on a wall somewhere just for you to appreciate. Once you appreciate the work you do, others will begin to notice on their own. Whether it’s friends and family, significant others, co workers, whoever - it’ll built your confidence in what you love and once you talk about or show what you love, you see how it impacts those around you and maybe they’ll appreciate it because of how much you love it. At least, that’s my take away from it.