What’s good, Insta?

It takes two words to answer it. Not much. I’ve been back on Instagram for a while now and it is nothing compared to the way the platform has been two years ago. Organic growth is simply impossible and reach is driven by an algorithm that has not the photographer on mind. Frustration is huge and persists among all people I’ve been recently talking to - from mid twenty year old film only photographers to digital mid fifties, professionals and amateurs.

It‘s not only that one’s individual performance can frustrate people, it’s also that using  the discover page to find inspiration gets more and more absurd. Instagram suggests me the same 20 photographers taking the same 20 compositions on and on and on again and again. Listen up Insta, if I wanna see Californian golden hour palm trees, I simply shift the white balance and crank the luminescence sliders until I can feel the taste of vomit filling up my mouth. And then I spit it out into the next open door of a fucking washing machine shot on Cinestill. I’m dead serious, mf’s.

I can only speak for myself but I really need to turn negativity into something creative. There’s a chance within all this mess. Since growth and reach are almost impossible to achieve, they started playing a minor role. I could finally free my mind and started posting the stuff that I really love. I recently uploaded black and white, home developed film for a whole months.

I made my work way more personal over the last weeks especially because I’ve been going through my archives and I wasn’t too impressed by what I saw. Still too much photos that were driven by instagram peer pressure - unpersonal and exchangeable to say the least. I need to change that because I’ll never be a Contax or Mamiya ambassador anyway for well known reasons! So fuck the comfort zone that I call bubble and let me leave for good!

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