Stephen Shore has left the building
The prolific photographer has taken his leave from Instagram. Is he onto something?
I’m back! Did you miss me?
I’ve been away from my photography duties here for the past week. Work has been nuts, and a 10-day sprint culminated in a short trip to Arizona for a board meeting. I’m back in Madison and catching up after so much time away. Needless to say, my email inbox is bursting at the seams.
Logging off to focus on travel always pays dividends, and I’m reflecting on how my short trip out west has once again impacted my relationship with social media. It’s clear that much of the time I spend on these social apps is driven by habit, addiction, and boredom — I look at these things less when I’m exploring the world and outside the regular confines of my day-to-day experience. Can you relate?
Yesterday, after I got back from our favorite Sunday morning yoga class, I started scrolling in earnest to see what I’d missed over the past few days. At the top of my timeline was a provocative picture from photographer Stephen Shore:
Shore needs no introduction, so I won’t bore you with the details. He’s famous and followed by more than 228k people on Instagram, so I suspect many of us have read his post over the past 24 hours. He writes:
I began posting on Instagram 10 years ago. My project was to photograph every day with my iPhone and with Instagram in mind - the screen size; the nature of the Instagram experience. I would post one a day. (Occasionally I’d post an older image, but these were clearly indicated).
I found a community of Instagrammers with similar aims. Some we’re friends. Some became Instagram friends. A global visual conversation developed.
I’ve had occasion to meet some of my new IG friends. When we saw each other for the first time there was often a sense of recognition. We knew the taste of each other’s perception. I had the image of two Enlightenment scholars, one in Paris and the other in Amsterdam who had never met but who corresponded weekly.
After about 6 years I found my feed beginning to get stale. I felt I was repeating myself. So I took a break from posting regularly. I would still, on occasion, put up an image or announce a show or book.
Over these years the Instagram experience has changed. Sponsored and suggested posts were introduced. The feed went from chronological to algorithmical. Recently I’ve seen scores of spam sites following and DM’ing me. And I’ve been simply spending too much time on The Gram.
I’ve decided to disengage from Instagram. I’ve also decided to keep my feed up and public to make a archive of this project available. (If anyone is interested in keeping abreast of my projects, they are welcome to subscribe to my newsletter on my website - link in profile).
A couple of days ago I asked Perplexity, the AI search engine, how to cancel my IG account. After walking me through the various steps it added that people who quit Instagram could “potentially experience positive effects on their mental health and overall well-being”, demonstrating not only Artificial Intelligence, but Artificial Wisdom.
I’ll miss Stephen’s posts because he’s always interesting, and I love how he sees. And it feels good to know that the great photographers and older artists of this medium we all love, like him, are still exploring it and seeing what’s possible. IG made it easy to reach out and respond to Stephen, which was novel and exciting. More than once, I saw him like one of my posts, and that always gave me an electric charge. We DM’d occasionally. It’s good to be seen by people you respect. Social media isn’t all bad.
I have always appreciated how fully Stephen embraced Instagram. The guy seems to have an expansive idea of photography, which rhymes with my sensibilities. Keep your mind open, right? Art world stars like Shore don’t need social media to reach new audiences, and I don’t expect his exit will inspire too many photographers to make the same leap. But his departure comes at a time when many of us are questioning these platforms and our relationships with them and wondering if it’s worth the time and effort.
I want to hear from you: Do you expect to spend more or less time on Instagram in 2024? Is Stephen on to something? Is there wisdom to be gained from spending less of our creative energies focused on platforms like Instagram? Tell me what you think.
Stephen’s note is timely because his latest book, Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography. A Memoir, landed in my mailbox days before my trip. I’m looking forward to reading this, and I know some of you will, too. MACK recently released an expanded edition, which seems right up my alley. You can see some page spreads and read more about the book on their website. That’s all for now. Have a great week!
He's hit the nail on the head here.
I feel strongly that the time I spend on social media has more negative impact than positive for me at this point. However, it's my only direct active connection to the photo world at this time. It's the only reason I stay. SS is fortunate that he'll have a voice and connection to photography outside of Instagram.