A question keeps tugging at the back of my mind…

What is the place of photography in todays social media landscape?

It’s a fuzzy question, but I think it’s important to think about. There’s a broad landscape of platforms to share your work online, hell I’m even building one called Refrakt. I think they solve some of the problems around photography and social media, and I’m glad to see there are people out there who care enough about photography to build places for people to gather online. Flickr still endures despite its age, Glass is great, and Instagram remains, well, Instagram.

But I can’t shake that question.

Why do photographers share their work on social media? The answers vary, but most want to get visibility. The hope is that more eyes on their work leads to more sales of their prints, books, zines etc. They grind it out, relentlessly posting to Instagram, or maybe they start a YouTube channel. More exposure is always a good thing, right?

Yet this grind starts to feel like shouting into the void. Chasing that next hit of dopamine from a like or comment drives people crazy. When your work isn’t even shown to your own followers anymore, the motivation to keep shooting can start to wane.

As more of a hobbyist these days, I don’t quite think the social media grind is worth it for me, so I tend not to put any effort in. I don’t really need to get my name out there, and if I’m being brutally honest, there’s a lot of photography that I just don’t care about. I still have a desire to share, but not in that way anymore.

I want to share my work with the people genuinely care. I crave a more intimate, private space where I can talk about the work I’m creating, the themes I’m exploring, and follow projects that intrigue me. I also want a public space where I can easily show my work—something like my website, but simpler. Just drop some photos into folders and a beautiful website comes out the other end.

The current state of social media doesn’t offer that. I think what I’m describing is more like a photo centric group chat.

Community groups already exist in Discord, Slack, Facebook, etc, but they’re not designed with photography in mind. The photo-viewing experience is clunky, even though the discussions can be richer. However, these spaces offer something different—room to breathe, no pressure to always post your best work, no engagement metrics looming over the experience. You can actually build rapport with people, and it’s a lot more enjoyable, provided you find the right groups.

I want to experiment with this some more. It may be the next iteration of Refrakt… or not. I’m still fleshing out ideas.

The spaces I’m describing may not be for everyone, and that’s okay, but I believe there are others like me who would thrive in a more intimate space. If that resonates with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for reading, Sam.