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Photography Needs to be Fun

Posted by Matt Birchler
— 2 min read

I was very high on Glass, a new photo sharing app this summer, but my enthusiasm for it has dropped in perfect sync with the temperature dropping here in the Midwest since then. Not only that, it’s made me appreciate Instagram more.

You may be like “it’s the likes that ruined it!” but that’s not my feeling at all, likes breathed a bit more life into it, but it faded almost instantly once again. Here’s the super-short-doesn’t-include-all-context problem: I don’t like what people post to Glass.

I forget who said it first, but scrolling my Glass feed felt more and more like scrolling Unsplash. Unsplash is awesome for finding photos of things, but it’s a shit social feed, which is fine for them because that’s not what they’re trying to do. Everyone seems to think they need to be a professional photographer on Glass, which makes sense as it’s a network for people willing to pay up for a photography-only social network; it’s not an everyman’s photo feed. At first this was fun, but it all got too same-y for me after a while. I used to enjoy the feed because it was high quality stuff, but now I scroll and everyone is making photos that look like every else’s.

Meanwhile, Twitter and instagram are teeming with pros, amateurs, and everyone else, and they’re just more rich photography experiences for me. Social networks have cultures that form around them, and my feeling is that the culture in Glass is way too buttoned up and monolithic. I want photography to be diverse and fun, and the monolithic feeds I see in Glass don’t check either of those boxes for me now.

Additionally, since Glass is paid and artists generally like people to be able to see their work, it doesn’t make sense for really talented people to post there (certainly not only there) because it’s limiting who and enjoy (and maybe purchase) their work.

I don’t usually write about things I stop using, but I talked up this service a good amount a few months ago when it was new, and felt I should post an update since my feelings have changed considerably since then.

You can still find me on Glass, and I may post there sometimes, but I’ll be posting to Instagram and Twitter because I enjoy them more.

P.S. You should follow Nacho Carretero Molero on Twitter for a curated feed of amazing photographers.