OLD IS NEW

First Flickr photo

I just did something that I haven’t done in ages and that was to upload new photos into my Flickr account. Remember those days where Flickr was the place for all our photos? That’s where many connections were made and it shaped our idea of online community. We cheered each other on in 365 Day projects and praised each other’s artistic endeavors. Were there some creepoes? Sure. There’s always creepoes. Some of my most liked photos on Flickr are bare feet photos. Though there’s ball gag photo that I took once that has over 40,000 views. Mostly everyone was nice and respectful. Then Instagram came along and everyone was all “ooohhh, shiny shiny!” and jumped ship.

I am also guilty of the “ooh, shiny shiny”, but part of the appeal of Instagram for me was that it was more community and less so much about the art of photography. It was just easier and honestly, a little less intimidating. Everyone on Flickr felt like real photographers taking real photos. I was always striving to imitate and disappointed with all of my photos. What’s kind of funny, is that I started having all the mental health insecurities with Flickr that people talk about having with Insta. I will never take a photo as good. I will never be skinny enough for a picture or pretty enough. I will always look awkward and like I’m trying to hard. I was a part of Flickr because of Chris and Amy and Brian. I thought it made me part of the gang and in some ways it did.

I have Chad in my life because of Flickr.

Instagram came along right around the time Chris was dying, which made it even more appealing. It was a clean slate. Chris did not have a presence there. Also the content on Instagram was less ‘Wow! Amazing photo!’ and more ‘oh! what an interesting thing you’ve encountered!’. It felt more relatable to me, a way to share a snapshot of my daily life. It didn’t matter that I was a terrible photographer and there was very little chance of me coming across an old photo of Chris. My relationship with Instagram started to change a year or two after joining. One day, I woke up and decided that I wanted to take better pictures. I wanted my Insta dashboard to be pleasing to the eye and I started honing my craft. I became more choosy about the photos I posted. I was curating my life and while I wasn’t paying attention, the richies running the show were also trying to curate my life, attempting to steer my dollars and thoughts for their benefit.

I am not a successful candidate for being steered.

In an attempt to step away from influence, I thought it might be a good idea to be more active on Flickr again. When I opened my Flickr feed of people I follow, the first images were all from this one man who has been part of the 365 Day Project for years. He’s one of the admins for the group. There he was, starting a whole new year of photos and I scrolled down to see who else has remained active all these years. The space still feels like it did when I joined way back in 2005, but less creatively intimidating. And since my gang is partially broken, I feel less pressure to be there. Less than a handful of all the people I followed are still active on Flickr, but I think times are changing. Amani posted today that she’ll be more present on Flickr than other social apps in the next year and I see more of us returning in the next few weeks. We’ve all grown weary of being influenced.

I look forward to making new online friends and curating a community instead of curating myself.