The photographer’s guide to deleting your Instagram ️📲📸✌
Whether you’re just starting out in the world of (paid) photography or you’re already a seasoned veteran, here are 5 REASONS TO DELETE INSTAGRAM!
(and just focus on the craft that you love)
R.I.P. my Instagram account 2011–2018
“We’re sorry to see you go!” — (Yeh right, I’m just another data point to you)
So why would you do it? Why would you delete your own Instagram?
That’s like some kinda photography career suicide ummm, right?
Well, let me give you the bare facts up front first, yeh? In the simplest terms, why would a photographer delete their own Instagram account? That’s completely counter-productive, completely counter-intuitive to marketing your own work.
It makes no sense, right?
So first, allow me to explain. As a professional photographer (that means I make money from photography) maybe you do too? That’s nice, we all got $tories.
I’ve been playing this game for a pretty long time now, 16 yrs and counting. Doesn’t sound like long but hey I’m talking pre-digital here. Like long enough ago to remember the days when you would you have to actually mail your negatives off to an real postal address in order to get it published in a magazine.
I just love it; documenting the world with a magical picture box. One of the most incredible inventions of the modern world — a life documenting device. And in our current matrix, what could be more awesome than getting paid to take photos n’ travel n’ shit? Yeh, you know it.
So yeh, I had an Instagram account which displayed my photography work in the purest sense of the world (and surprisingly few images of myself). I had a decent amount of followers (most of which I didn’t know personally but they were ‘engaged’ none-the-less) and through this account I would generate paid-work…and obviously, hype for myself.
And then one day I just deleted it (and that’s the actual screengrab you see above).
“…And then one day I just deleted it…”
Sounds mad right? Honestly you have no idea…but for real though, I was seriously just so sick of it…because I saw no future in it. And that’s the most important part to understand: There’s no future in it. I saw NO future in what I was doing. I just viewed it all as a total waste of energy. I just couldn’t stand double-tapping the screen like a monkey anymore. This platform had become so far removed from what appreciating photography was I just had a does-not-compute moment with my phone.
“…I just couldn’t stand double-tapping the screen like a monkey anymore…”
Yes, it’s true, I could have sold the account to one of those social media account purchasing companies (yeh they exist!) but I thought better of it.
Seven years just down the toilet.
1. This is the best reason!
Okay so the best reason is obviously the scientific method argument which is to always discuss a situation which is observable and repeatable. I mean this is science right? Observable and repeatable? So let’s go with it, let’s break it down to its bare components,
hen most people think of photography they usually think of Instagram, and when most people think of Instagram they are likely to think about photos (well, among other things of course).
If, like myself, you were making a living from photography before IG came along, you also may be wondering, ‘How on earth did we actually reach this new paradigm in photography?’
Upon reflection, the evolution and the story of the world’s most popular photography app is unquestionably interesting, especially when you consider that this digital revolution took less than a decade to completely alter human behavior and our collective understanding of what photography actually is.
That’s right, photography; an art-form that has been a part of civilized society for over two centuries which was completely remodeled in less than 10 years…by a free app. Of course there were other factors too, like the transition from chemically-produced imagery over to digitally produced imagery, coupled with the widespread integration of low-cost CMOS sensors into literally billions of smartphones.
“…How on earth did we actually reach this new paradigm in photography?”
Regardless though, Instagram is undoubtedly the penultimate photography tool of the modern era leveling the playing field for everyone of all ages. What began as a simple image sharing service has, for most, become an activity that is now completely ingrained into all aspects of our daily modern lives. Not only has it has completely changed the way that most of the modern world documents their lives, but it has also altered our collective perspective to photography as a subject itself and how we consume images.
Social media data analysts are repeatedly telling us that the platform’s amount of users is continuously growing with no sign of slowing down. So with this in mind, why is there now a growing trend among professional photographers to delete their Instagram accounts?
Being one of them, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the situation. It wasn’t an easy decision, but after nearly seven years of committed usage, I finally put ‘the gram’ to bed in the only way to bring about complete closure; by deleting the app and my account, thus waving goodbye to several thousand loyal followers who appreciated my imagery of a relatively niche subject: BMX bicycles and the lifestyle that followed it. You see, like a lot of pro-photographers, my Insta account wasn’t about me; I very rarely ever appeared in the actual photos themselves. The majority of my images were of other people, usually professional BMXers, riding their bikes in many different locations across the world.
“…why is there now a growing trend among professional photographers to delete their Instagram accounts?”
Because it’s easy for anyone to just call themselves a professional photographer” these days, I need to humbly assert the fact that selling images was indeed how I made my living for over a decade; long before the gram entered the photographic spotlight.
For anyone craving credentials for validation: I have shot numerous magazine covers, sold my images to big commercial brands, had my work printed in hundreds of various print publications, owned all sorts of delicious and rare camera equipment, traveled on assignment to many exotic locations, and I even had my work selected for Red Bull Illume; which is quite the honour if you are a photographer who shoots images of subjects that move really fast.
My photography career actually began as a happy accident more than anything else. It was during the summer of 2004 that I first sold my images to a commercial magazine. I had been using a battered, old Canon Eos 5 SLR and was hand-printing Tmax 35mm onto B&W paper in my University’s darkroom. It never occurred to me that
The bulk of my work being sold as magazine editorial
The actual ‘trigger moment’ for me came during a conversation I was having with an athlete I used to shoot photos of. He told me he was also getting really tired of Insta, however he wasn’t going to delete his IG account but instead just use a content scheduling app to pre-publish all his content with. This was basically so that he didn’t have to look at the app as much because he too was already heavily experiencing the “Insta-drain”. Because I was already aware of big brands using content scheduling apps, it quickly dawned upon me that if individuals were now adopting content scheduling apps for their own personal IG accounts, then what kind of a future does that forecast? A future where the majority of accounts are being run by scheduling apps? What’s the point of that?
“Is that really how I want to spend your time?” I asked myself. Inside of a never-ending newsfeed of pre-scheduled content? An ocean of content which has been algorithmically selected for you, nestled between carefully targetted sponsored ads; is that really how I want to spend my precious time on planet Earth? Wondering which comment responses were real and which were Ai? The more I thought about it, the more I felt that complete deletion was the only viable option. I reached these other nine points below as I explored this problem in my mind.
- Instagram strips away the real magic of Photography.
I will keep this first point brief, however I think it goes without saying that IG strips away the real magic of photography on so many levels. - Attention spans are at an all-time low.
We all know this one well and we all know that social media is ruining our lives, mental health and blah blah blah. And although I do genuinely care about these important aspects of modern life, what I’m actually getting at here is quite a straight forward principle that anyone who shoots photos and then spends hours processing them will agree with, which is:
I NO LONGER WANT MY PHOTOS TO BE ANALYZED & EVALUATED BY PEOPLE WHO ARE ONLY PREPARED TO LOOK AT THEM INSIDE OF A NEWSFEED FOR JUST MERE FRACTIONS OF SECONDS! There, I said it…but it’s true, and because I feel this way, I cannot and will not place my content in such an environment anymore. It’s over yo. - Feeding your ego doesn’t improve your life.
- The Facebook-style algorithm was never as good as the chronological one.
- I want to free-up more of my own time for other creative projects.
- Your IG account has no future longevity because it is not seen as a portfolio.
Learn the data and be driven by those results. The facts are simple. Profile visits are rare and - Everyone and everything you know eventually changes. Embrace it.
Despite still being madly in-love with BMX and BMX photography, my own personal life is very different these days. I no longer work in ‘the BMX industry’ and I am very happy that I departed from it (less than gracefully, lol). Life moves on and if you still have the same mindset when you’re 35 that you did when you’re 18 then you need to take a good long hard look at yourself. Change is beautiful. Embrace it. - I am seriously tired of being data-mined and ad-targeted.
- Honestly, I have more content than I even know what to do with…
- Going ‘full-circle’ is the only way to ever completely understand something.
On the Internet’s timeline, its rise to fame was mostly in-sync with the mass-adoption of the smartphone and its colour image capturing technology. In 2004, digital camera technology was outselling 35mm film; the camera companies obviously knew what was coming next.
introducti to the public beginning around 2005. which began in the mid-noughties. Aside from Flickr, there wasn’t much else specifically aimed at photography in terms of sharing platforms. Instagram really did change the game when you think about it through photography’s lens. Hundreds of years of chemically processed tradition which was then transformed into pixels and shoved into the pockets millions of people across the world. I mean talk about a change of dynamic. And just like other giant tech brands, it’s name even became a verb. Instagram’s dominance is undeinable balh ablh
transforming it from an arcane tool of reportage into the
When most people think of photography they think of Instagram, and when people think of Instagram they think about photos.
Instagram is undoubtedly the photography tool of the modern era. It has completely revolutionized contemporary photography in just under a decade. What began as a simple image sharing app has, for most, become an activity that is now ingrained into our daily lives; in sync with the mass adoption of the smartphone. And just like other giant tech brands, it even became a verb. So why is there a growing trend among professional photographers to delete their accounts?
In just a few years after the masses gained widespread access to CMOS sensor technology, along came the perfect app in which you could display all your images to the rest of the world.
So why is their a growing trend of professional photographers deleting their Instagram accounts? Don’t believe me, just do some research. Because I’m one of them, so I thought I’d share some insight into why I reached this conclusion that smashing the gram daily is no longer beneficial to me or my work.
appears to no longer be a social space for photography to be appreciated. Instead it has become an endless commercialized vortex of your friends showing-off, brands (and their influencers) trying to win your trust, hilarious memes, chonky animals and various celebrity’s marketing teams competing with each other for the next big feed-melter.
A quiet moment of Ansel Adam-esc reflection, it is not. If you have eyes to see you’ll probably agree.
Having committed 6yrs of my life to Instagram and built up a humble, enthusiastic group of followers who enjoyed my work, it was with a heavy heart that I finally hit the delete account button.
I will save you the details but just believe me when I say I was a professional photographer in the pre-Instagram era
Why would a professional photographer delete their Instagram account?
I believe there is another place where photos could live in the social media stratosphere. A place where photos could be appreciated in the ways that we remember our favorite photos existing. A place where genuine elements of the human experience could still exist and be discovered by others. There needs to be a new social media platform created for photography to live in the purest state it can.
I deleted my Instagram account of 7 years because it no longer feels like a platform that supports or appreciates photography. It has evolved into something else now.
