This Photographer Deleted His Social Media with 1.5 Million Followers

[Eric]

I've been contemplating getting rid of Instagram, I can post on Reddit or other platforms and get way more views, likes and feedback but IG has always been a struggle, You have to put a lot of time into posting, properly tagging, etc. for a fraction of what you get on all the others.

This guy, Dave Morrow, who is a seriously awesome photographer, decided one day to nuke all of his social media accounts and focus all that time taking better photos instead of posting all the time.

Morrow spends 9 months out of each year living out of his van and traveling the wildness on foot for an “endless” photography trip. With a background in aerospace engineering, he’s constantly performing experiments on himself in order to optimize his life and work.

In 2017, he had the idea for an experiment that most popular photographers would probably find unthinkable: completely quit social media. But since Morrow is a self-described “all or nothing” type of person, he couldn’t just stay out of his accounts. Instead, he decided to delete them completely.

At the time, Morrow had about 1 million followers on Google+, 500,000 on Facebook, and 15,000 on Instagram. 1.5 million followers — gone.

This guy is my hero!

This Photographer Deleted His Social Media with 1.5 Million Followers

Professional landscape photographer Dave Morrow had thriving social media accounts with over 1.5 million followers. Last year, he decided to delete those

petapixel.com

 

[JayMysteri0]

I've been contemplating getting rid of Instagram, I can post on Reddit or other platforms and get way more views, likes and feedback but IG has always been a struggle, You have to put a lot of time into posting, properly tagging, etc. for a fraction of what you get on all the others.

This guy, Dave Morrow, who is a seriously awesome photographer, decided one day to nuke all of his social media accounts and focus all that time taking better photos instead of posting all the time.



This guy is my hero!

This Photographer Deleted His Social Media with 1.5 Million Followers

Professional landscape photographer Dave Morrow had thriving social media accounts with over 1.5 million followers. Last year, he decided to delete those

petapixel.com

Variations of such things have been going on for awhile for creatives who attempt to use social media to bolster their presence. It's a lot of work, and platforms like Instagram reward more those who repost the works of others as opposed to those who post their work. Also it's rare that work actually pays off unless one goes viral. Otherwise most got a moderate amount of response, which creators then end up burning themselves out trying to maintain that response.


I don't mean for anyone to sit thru the video. I present it as example of what I am referring to.

For many the work it takes to maintain & post to social media can be seen as more harmful to creatives then helpful. As your photographer mentions, once some divorce themselves from the need to feed social media their work improves and / or they enjoy their work more.

That's not counting as I mentioned how many find their work reposted without credit, and those accounts getting all the attention.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1436118962501152781/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1436001902706061312/

That's not to say of course some don't hit it big & do very well from it. As I've purchased the book of this artist who went viral on social media.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1435603562759872514/

 

[Clix Pix]

Although I have an Instagram account, I do not post any of my images on it, nor do I post images on FB. IMHO posting one's images on either of those sites (both owned by FB), even in low resolution, is just asking to have the images lifted by viewers and misused in some way or retained by FB as "their" property. No thanks!

 

[SuperMatt]

Variations of such things have been going on for awhile for creatives who attempt to use social media to bolster their presence. It's a lot of work, and platforms like Instagram reward more those who repost the works of others as opposed to those who post their work. Also it's rare that work actually pays off unless one goes viral. Otherwise most got a moderate amount of response, which creators then end up burning themselves out trying to maintain that response.


I don't mean for anyone to sit thru the video. I present it as example of what I am referring to.

For many the work it takes to maintain & post to social media can be seen as more harmful to creatives then helpful. As your photographer mentions, once some divorce themselves from the need to feed social media their work improves and / or they enjoy their work more.

That's not counting as I mentioned how many find their work reposted without credit, and those accounts getting all the attention.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1436118962501152781/
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1436001902706061312/

That's not to say of course some don't hit it big & do very well from it. As I've purchased the book of this artist who went viral on social media.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1435603562759872514/

I had Instagram when it first came out in 2010. It had a lot of really nice photos. I deleted it once the FB acquisition was announced a year or 2 later. It’s no longer about photos - it’s about “influencers” and tracking you for other advertising.

 

[JayMysteri0]

Although I have an Instagram account, I do not post any of my images on it, nor do I post images on FB. IMHO posting one's images on either of those sites (both owned by FB), even in low resolution, is just asking to have the images lifted by viewers and misused in some way or retained by FB as "their" property. No thanks!

I had Instagram when it first came out in 2010. It had a lot of really nice photos. I deleted it once the FB acquisition was announced a year or 2 later. It’s no longer about photos - it’s about “influencers” and tracking you for other advertising.

Instagram is still a favorite of many artists. Like you say it is heavily 'influencer' oriented, but that's drifted for awhile towards Tik Tok. For artists Instagram is still a favorite, as it does have it's own community of sorts. It's when artists get caught up in the loop of chasing 'likes' it become a detrimental thing to an artist's passion. Something I believe that photographer in that article realized.

There's always good & bad to anything. Plenty of projects thru Kickstarter & Indiegogo have been funded thanks to the attention artists have gotten on Instagram.

 

[Joe]

I have Instagram. I only follow friends, family, and celebrities for the most part. I don’t follow any “influencers” who aren’t really doing much but posting half naked pics for likes.

 

[Herdfan]

Instagram is still a favorite of many artists. Like you say it is heavily 'influencer' oriented, but that's drifted for awhile towards Tik Tok.

I have also noticed that TikTok is being used vs youtube. Used to see most hill climb or mudding videos from YT, but now they seems to be moving to TT. Not sure I like the change.

 

[Eric]

Instagram is still a favorite of many artists. Like you say it is heavily 'influencer' oriented, but that's drifted for awhile towards Tik Tok. For artists Instagram is still a favorite, as it does have it's own community of sorts. It's when artists get caught up in the loop of chasing 'likes' it become a detrimental thing to an artist's passion. Something I believe that photographer in that article realized.

There's always good & bad to anything. Plenty of projects thru Kickstarter & Indiegogo have been funded thanks to the attention artists have gotten on Instagram.

Right, it's definitely a great platform if you already have an audience or a well known name but for those of us trying to break in it's nearly impossible. You either need to advertise, hire a company to manage your account or get mentions from really huge accounts. At the same time, like you, I follow a lot of my favorite photographers and artists so I won't actually leave it but will likely slow or stop posting all together. It's just too much work for such a small return, like this guy, I would rather focus on taking better photos.