Edition Seventy Five

The philosophy of slow.

My photography has always felt rushed.

This was brought on by a fear, if I could call it that, of being put on the spot. Being the center of any sort of attention. Putting myself into a situation where there was the possibility of ‘confrontation’ is something I avoided.

The rush to take photos yielded some results which I found enjoyable at first. But I rarely enjoyed the process behind it. Those quick, sneak shots started to feel unethical. Snapping a photo and then walking away.

It felt sleazy and dirty.

I discovered that if I ever wanted to enjoy photography I would have to slow it down. The sped up routine I built for myself was becoming too familiar. Add the word ‘productive’ when describing any aspect of your photography and it is just a matter of time before the hobby starts to feel like a chore instead of a choice.

Why we rush our photography.

I recall overhearing the following:

“Five minutes? That’s like forever!”

Once the algorithm of social media takes hold of you the photography becomes rushed. You sacrifice patience and the hobby isn’t enjoyable anymore.

To wait is like taking a deep breath.

A pause that gives you time to think about composition or the subject. It helps you to communicate better what you want to say with a photo or a specific project. There might be details you miss when you rush. We know that producing images en masse in effort to post according to an algorithmic timetable leads to burn out.

Algorithms abhor the act of waiting.

They reward consistent posting and engagement. Saves over likes is a new catch phrase Instagram uses to promote “growth”. The idea of going viral in a sea of billions of posts are small but we still try. We apply metrics to creativity — but it is something you cannot measure with statistics and by standard means.

The delayed reward.

Instant rewards (gratification) provide immediate pleasure, while delayed rewards require waiting in exchange for larger, long-term benefits.

Photo sharing today is 99% about instant gratification.

Instagram got its name as a portmanteau (blend) of two words: "instant" and "telegram." The founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, chose the name to reflect the app's core feature of taking instant, polaroid-style photos and sharing them like digital telegrams right away.

Instant gratification via social media wreaks havoc on us. We jump onto a chosen platform, post and often scroll until the five minutes we promised ourselves turns into an hour long meme fest.

Instant gratification has it place. But something that improves over time with regular practice doesn’t benefit as much from the quick dopamine shots. You learn more from the process of experimenting with different settings VS how many likes you got. Fruit doesn’t ripen overnight. Similarly skills take time to master.

Finding a reward in longer time frames when it comes to your photography gives not only more enjoyment of the art but also improves the process. You discover more about photography — techniques, different approaches and the works of other photographers. Make mistakes doing long exposure photography. Spend time making zines and learning about other photographers from their zines.

Find something around photography which takes you away from the overly curated photo grids on our phones. If you want your relationship with photography to be a long and healthy one, focusing on the rush and productivity isn’t the way to go.

In closing.

Today, no rushing is almost considered a sin.

Waiting used to be an integral part of life but as technology sped up so did we. Instead of waiting in line at the cinema we Netflix. Instead of looking at a photo album we scroll Instagram and share photos in an unnatural way while marveling at manicured grids.

Perhaps we should apply more waiting when it comes to practicing our photography. Maybe it is time to wait a bit longer before sharing our photos and not let an advertising driven algorithms dictate when (and what) we share.

Thanks for reading : )