The former vice president of google said some years ago “If there are photos you really care about, print them out.” This resonates now more than ever, especially in these days of “rented spaces” that are entirely out of our control. The “Enshittification” of everything online destroys all platforms (flickr, tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, dead or dying in terms of usefulness). The web at large has become “five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four.”
What do we lose when we no longer have pictures to see and share and revisit outside of whatever platform is dominating the digital landscape? How will we access those platforms in the future, if they even exist? I don’t want to rant about how “it was better when” (maybe a little). After all, I’m writing this on a computer with several orders of magnitude more computing power than the first space shuttle, and I’ll publish it to what is essentially a worldwide audience by pushing a button while at home. Technology is great. But what happens when the lights go out…?
What happens when Square Space gets bought out or goes under or just decides to pull the plug because of something offensive I wrote? What happens to all the photographs I’ve made and things I’ve written and the drivel I’ve put out into the world? If nothing else, it’ll be in a box, in the negatives, in the prints and the books and all the things that I’ve put on paper, part of the archive. Like so many creative folks from Gen-X and the Elder Millennial generation I’ve become obsolete and I’m ok with that. There will be a record of what I did when I’m gone. One that you can pick up and hold and smell and feel the textures of in your hands. At least until they toss it out with the rest of the trash…
Things I’ve been reading lately…
The Gen-X Career Meltdown
Just when they should be at their peak, experienced workers in creative fields find that their skills are all but obsolete.
A Long Hard Look at America
As the transatlantic alliance falters, a major exhibition of U.S. photography offers Europeans a dizzying array of perspectives.
Safety Off
It might have something to do with being in proximity to people that are comforted, one could even say thrilled, by footage of humans being shackled and imprisoned.