Mobile Photography Distribution

After last night's bantering of diminished effort put forth toward personally inspired photography, I came to a weird sort of realization. Despite my nigh apathetic chants, there is actually a swelling well of photographic content I have produced unknowingly, one which I am not actively sharing but which, perhaps, merits such distribution.

My lament of an absence of personal work is largely centered on the content of my Flickr gallery. It is my central hub, the successfully recognized portfolio which garners the most attention toward my personal work. And it is anemic, devoid of content compared to the frequency with which I know it is produced. My baseline of its success is measured by activity levels in 2011, when I shared content through that forum with regularity. But as time has passed my self imposed standards of work fitting for display in that gallery has reached levels which serve as a hamstring to my desire to share content, offer my perspective of the world be it relevant or a masturbatory act of vanity.

Where that central portfolio has atrophied, however, my mobile photography library has thrived. Photographs both taken with cell phones and those transferred to mobile devices and edited (however shoddily with campy looks and presets) appear to have usurped the tenacity formerly allotted to my Flickr gallery. My ignorance of this untapped wealth of imagery serves only as a grave disservice to the compelling urge to share my stories. But I am unsure how to go about sharing those stories. I am unsure how comfortable I would be abandoning the organized paradigms by which I have shared those stories thus far.

Of the strictly mobile image distribution platforms out there, I have adopted some comfort in the use of Instagram in line with the popularity it has garnered over time. While still active on Facebook, I would share "throw away" images with friends and family. My desire to share these images extends beyond this very targeted distribution among "safe" parties. Be they the products of photography as an art taken to the greatest extent of my abilities or not, I wish to open these images up for a more global consumption and vulnerability to criticism. Such a thing only threatens to strengthen my grasp of photography as even my namesake's "kneejerk imagery" is bared to such open consumption and judgment. The instinctual course of action is to develop a mobile album of sorts for such sharing on Flickr, which would immediately expose those images to the global attention I seek to subject them to, however mobile photography is a very new medium with its own specialized distribution platforms and I am unsure if this is the correct route.

Mobile image distribution is a vexing issue to me. Unlike my Flickr gallery, matured to the point of leading to paid work, my Instagram gallery is comparatively underwhelming and obscure. Social media platforms have dictated the direction of mobile image sharing and social media is itself a challenging and unforgiving platform into which much time can be sunk to little ultimate benefit. A shoddy Facebook page and even this blog are testaments to my lack of understanding of the methods by which one can properly capitalize upon social networking. Perhaps it is sourced to issues mentioned in the post preceding this one, the perceived lack of available time in which to invest. Both Blogger and Facebook offer avenues by which notoriety can be achieved directly through monetary investment, but, let alone feeling like a cheater's method, I am not confident that the content I provide is worth the investment of others time and interest. Not when so much media with plenty of substance is otherwise available.

No, I do not feel comfortable with the notion of paying for notoriety. I feel that my work should only thrive by its own virtue, by the attention it achieves in an of itself for merely existing. Unfortunately, in a world of globally accessible media of all types, that methodology is likely a losing avenue. Ultimately, the desire to achieve recognition and notoriety is, in itself, too foolish and self absorbed a goal to ever expect accomplished. Even before we were a culturally consumerist global culture, the pursuit of fame, what this inevitably boils down to, is too self serving an objective to ever see accomplished. It is a self aware dilemma of which I am constantly aware. But why else take photographs if not to share them with others?

I spend today locked in my apartment by facet of deplorable weather. Time is unusually available to me to come to a decisive solution on how and what I choose to share with the world. Unreasonably, I expect a decision and course of action to be taken by the conclusion of the day. Inner conflict appears destined to define my gracious four extra hours of personal time. Oh to forever be at conflict with oneself. What's the current meme again? "The struggle is real".