Is Instagram Devaluing Real Photography?

In this digital age, it certainly seems like appreciation for fine art is declining.

Now, this might seem like quite the bold statement to make. After all, the Internet makes it easier than ever to share new creative ideas with billions of people. The ability for a photo, video, or piece of written work to go viral has completely revolutionized culture as we know it. It is not this that I am against (I actually encourage it).


The "advances" that are bothering me, and with photography in particular, is the influx of easy apps that take away from the true artistic nature of the medium. There are plenty of culprits that have convinced anyone with a point and shoot camera that they are suddenly the da Vinci of their age: Photoshop and Gimp leading the way. It is not them that I would like to rant about today though. The app that really grinds my gears? It's Instagram.

The photo sharing software has become IMMENSELY popular in the past few years, so much so that Facebook shelled out a cool billion dollars to acquire them earlier in 2012. You can't log on to their site (or Twitter for that matter) without your feed being absolutely bombarded with "professional, deep photos, taken by your own friends!)

More often than not though, you are merely staring at pictures of your contact's breakfast, run through countless filters to give off a fake Polaroid look, a blur that's unnecessary, or (worst of all) a black and white filter. Does your bagel really need to be in black and white? Does that somehow make it more worthy of a photograph?

Now, before going any further I should make it clear that I am not against technology in the medium as a whole. When used correctly, these programs can create some truly astounding effects that a lack of equipment or environmental challenges had previously rendered impossible. Nor do I think that the technology itself is what takes away from the creative aspect of photography. The entire point of Instagram (originally), Photoshop, and others was to let an artist play in a sandbox they previously did not have access to.

The problem (and isn't it always with technology?) is how these programs are being used. Rather than being used as a supplement to BETTER a photo, these programs are being used to create the photo almost from scratch. The result? Thousands and thousands of pictures that look exactly the same, and that's just the ones that you can see through your connections. The internet as a whole is absolutely FLOODED with these copycats.

Perhaps worst of all is the fact that all it takes to make these images available to the world at large is a USB cable and a one-click upload. Quantity doesn't help with photography, at all. There are only so many times the same picture can be seen with the same filter over and over again before the idea behind the photo, to share a moment, gets lost completely.

That's what the digital age is threatening: to take away the meaning behind photos. Think about it, does your family have an old album of you as a child or perhaps family members who passed before you were even thought of? Those pictures are absolutely cherished, and will probably be passed from generation to generation because of the memories they invoke. It used to be that photography was all about capturing a special moment: couples cuddling at sunset, a baby's first step, that time you dropped your ice cream cone at the theme park and thought the world was going to end. These days, we're uploading pictures every five minutes. It's impossible NOT to know what someone is doing at any given moment (and what they look like doing it).

This is not meant to be a "woe is the World of photography" post, and please don't take it as such. Photographers will continue to work on their craft (pros and amateurs alike) and catch some very special moments. But the world at large needs to take notice, and appreciate the medium a little more. Pictures are a special thing, and they're meant to be shared and cherished, not blasted out all day, every day. It's easy to forget that when apps like Instagram make it so easy to post, but I implore each of you to think a little bit before uploading that next photo and deciding if it really is special. Doing so will make you a better photographer.

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Steve writes for Cheap Instagram Followers – a website designed to help boost your Instagram Profile.