Spotting Fakery
It takes me little to no time to spot fakes in people and photography. Currently, the ratio of real to fake is definitely getting the wrong way and growing that way fast. I see “photographers” who have supposedly been in the industry and worked hard at their craft behaving the same way as influencers. Rest assured, if this sort of thing were happening even 5 years ago, they would have been laughed at and ridiculed to the point of destruction.
This is not me saying that people should be ridiculed constantly or bullied. I do believe, though, people and definitely artists should be held accountable for the things they share of both themselves and their art. I have been guilty of chasing the trend and posting things I wasn’t particularly proud of. However, I always made sure anything that went out was something I stood behind.
Sadly, social media has really ruined this level of professionalism and reverence that photography or even journalism once had. People now are all about the clicks and the views, and don’t really care about the level of the work they are putting out, so long as a lot of people see it. This style of quantity over quality really leads to some awful bits of media getting lots of attention when, in reality, they should have been critiqued and mocked before they ever got out.
When I came up in photography, there was a definite level of judgment and snobbery toward me. That’s fine, I was young,18 years old, shooting alongside 40-year-olds who had been shooting longer than I had been alive. This was just how it was. You had to have thick skin. Get used to being told your work is bad, but listen to the ones who were willing to give you tips and take on board everything they had to say. I think now, with the rise of posting work on socials and lowering the overall value of your work to this compressed form of a cesspit, has changed the way people think their work should be treated.
When’s the last time you saw an Instagram photographer do a portfolio review with an actual agency or photo editor, or even a more experienced photographer to offer advice? Okay, maybe a portfolio review is out of the question. They don’t have the contacts or can’t afford it, etc. When’s the last time you saw a negative comment actually get responded to? Or they post their work and ask for a critique, but instead of engaging in a conversation with those offering advice or their opinion, they only focus on the people telling them how good they are and to ignore the “haters”.
That level of lack of self-awareness is indicative of a very insecure, unsure artist who clearly had no thought or real intent when making or posting their work, but instead is using it just to try and get their imaginary numbers better, as they believe this is the only way to get ahead in this cannibalistic industry. What they don’t realise is that by doing these attention-seeking me, me, me type of posts, they just come across as the same as every other overly yellow-washed “cinematic vibes” photographers who talk more about the gear they use than the actual focus or work they are currently doing. These people are 100 for a penny and I can’t stress enough that when a real, project-building, caring photographer sees their work, they laugh and mock with their other more talented colleagues, as they all know these people will never amount to much more than an Instagram “banger” or a TikTok trend. Don’t be like them. Go and work hard and research your field you wish to photograph. Accept that not everyone will like your work, but listen and take on board advice from those willing to give it. Instagram is absolutely meaningless and should never be treated as your body of work.
Here’s some work I took recently, testing out a new camera to confirm if it would work for a project I am starting to shoot in the new year.
