Remember when #photography was about the #art of it, not clout-chasing or product-pushing? For example, in the late 2000s so many cool (not just meaning 'popular') photographers were on #Flickr. Then #Instagram came around in 2010 and #Facebook bought them out in 2012.
IMHO the mid-2000s was when #tech & online platforms started going downhill quick and tech #enshittification began to spread. I think the introduction of the #iPhone had a lot to do with it, not to mention the many tech acquisitions that have been happening ever since. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, the 'art' of photography feels lost now; pay-walled, plundered, copied, capitalized, and even censored. All of it beholden to whatever satisfies the venture capitalists, advertisers, and/or shareholders. Fuck all that. Let's take back the web. Let's take back tech. This is why the #Fediverse (including #pixelfed) and more broadly, concepts like #smalltech, #indieweb, #smallweb and #selfhosting etc gives me glimmers of hope.
