I have written about Flickr a few times, particularly about the change of direction the company has taken and the lack of inclusion of its members by the board and CEO of the company. This time I would like to write about my own attitude towards posting pictures on this platform. The reason is that this attitude has changed quite purposefully and that at the same time I am suffering from this change.
In the past Flickr used to be a place where I wanted to post pictures that I wanted many people to see and fave. And in a way this is still the case and I will explain what kind of problem this causes.
My personal photographic journey has gone from trying to developing a style of my own to realising that although I believe I have a style I am not willing or able to confine my photography to one subject, one theme, one successful way of using technical means. I have developed the ability of determining how the outcome of a picture will be if I use x or y camera, technique, processing. But this ability does not satisfy me. I am not happy to repeat things again and again in order to refine them. I want to try out new things, I want to walk on treacherous ground, I want for example to see how processing an average JPEG picture leads to a different meaning of the picture knowing well that the outcome is not a “brilliant” work.
Although I would never be so bold to compare myself with him, I like and admire Irving Penn for the diversity in his work. I would not go so far to say that I try to follow his steps but at least is he a good example of a photographer who kept searching in many different fields.
https://irvingpenn.org/biography
Maybe I am even too lazy to try to return to a certain place, a certain technique in order to achieve similar results. I probably lack the determination of putting myself through this refinement process. The result is that I try out new things again and again and that sometimes the technical quality of my pictures suffers. I recognise this, I acknowledge this but I don’t want to change this, at least not at this point in time.
Of course the consequence is that people who as viewers expect a certain type of pictures get disappointed and stop faving and following. And there it hurts a little although I know that this is self-inflicted.
Flickr has become an experimentation lab for me, a place where I play and try out things. I “dare” posting pictures that are not necessarily “nice” or sophisticated and as a consequence I suffer lack of love... :-)
But for the moment that’s the way to go.