Risk and no reward, a few thoughts on Instagram.
I find it interesting at times using Instagram as a means of getting my work out into the world. Other than posting work to my website (something I tend to do when it’s a little bit more polished and I have found a thread of something interesting to explore), I post images that I’m happy to share with the world onto Instagram. This is definitely the best way to get the work out there and in front of the eyes of the many - Well that’s the idea anyway. These aren’t always the images that are going to be going to be used within a body of work, but they are nice to share and give a flavour of direction I’m interested in.
This is where it starts to get interesting; If I post tried and tested types of images I will get a positive response. Instagram generally rewards images like this by showing them to more people once it gets initial interest. If however, I post images that are more experimental and perhaps explore a different avenue that I’m interested in, then I don’t always get that initial interest and we know how that plays out.
Now the problem that we face is this – Do we just post images that have a higher chance of success or do we experiment?
But there’s a catch! (there always is). If we declare we are artists and we will follow the direction life takes us with our work. The work generated has great potential and could tread new ground but chances are we aren’t going to get any momentum. And no momentum equals that very few people are going to see it. Perhaps that’s not important and we make the work and its just for us – and that’s fine.
Now if we post images that follow a pattern of greater success, yes there is a lot better chance the images will be seen and possibly well received, giving us access to a larger audience and in return opportunities to do things with our images. but that will be at the cost of no longer being free to produce the work you truly want to, you become trapped by your own success and end up following a narrow path.
What if there was a third option?
There are anyway more options - you just have to draw your own little option box and put a tick in it. I didn’t even bother to label it, just ticked it and that was enough. I guess if you did want to pencil in a label, it would probably say ‘Dan’.
So off I walk into the sunset doing my own thing (well twilight more often than not in my case) I produce work that comes from only pleasing my eye. I think I have travelled down a path that I see things in a certain way and can’t help but produce the images that fit me. I’m hoping this makes sense, I guess its like talking in your natural accent, you cant help but speak in that way. The important thing for me is not being afraid to just be me and continue to explore the possibilities.
I do like to try a number of things out and constantly experiment with new ideas. They often fail but every soe often it leads me to a new place and thought process. I dare say this is why I photography the little fair ground on the beach so much. It teaches me that there’s has to be new ways of looking and working.
I think I’ve been waffling on there. Back to the thoughts on Instagram; I think you have to be honest to yourself. What do you want from your work and the places you share it. If you want to feel success, then work at it – there are no short cuts. (I just want to say ‘success’ has many forms. My success is the enjoyment of what I do). I think its important to do what you love, especially if it’s a personal pursuit. I am also pleasantly surprised form time to time with responses to my more experimental work. I think its important to try and stay fresh and keep your work moving. I try to find the edges of what my work can be, before it just becomes a mess of colour. Sometimes those experimental images set a bit of an unexpected spark.
