In early September, I started a small experiment: posting every photo from the same roll of film. At first, I simply wanted to take the relieve the pressure of choosing one picture every day, which I had been doing since I created this account. But I was also curious about what it would mean to show a whole roll without filtering. I liked the idea to be forced to look at all the pictures as worthy, whatever the reason could be. More generally I like the concept of creative constraint. At first, forcing myself to post every picture — both the good and the bad ones — felt liberating. But soon it also felt strange, almost alienating. I realized I was losing the pleasure of curating. What used to feel like a personal, DIY practice started to feel mechanical, like something any automated script could do better than me. It felt awkward but interesting to post photos that I normally would have skipped. It allowed me to appreciate those pictures that I would have otherwise overlooked. Even though those didn't get many likes! This was a good reminder that "likes" depend on many factors, most of which are not related to the quality of the image itself. You all know that well already. Looking at this roll, I noticed that strong contrasts and colorful tones seem to attract more attention, even some that could be labeled as cheesy. It's another well-known fact that what you love most about your work isn't always what others connect with. Still, I have to admit that, overall, the pictures with the most likes were some of the strongest. This concluding post features the eight most-liked pictures and the four least-liked ones. I also included one of the least liked pictures that I actually like a lot. Thank you to everyone who followed along, even through this last blog post! I’m glad I tried it, and I'm also glad to go back to posting more intentionally. #brussels #filmphotography #colorfilm #lomography400 #minoltahimatic #pointandshoot #streetphotography #photochallenge
kraks
I appreciate your experiment, even if I probably haven't even seen all your posts! I like the lack of algorithms here, but it does sometimes make it hard to catch everything people post. If I have a day off doing other things, or if people post while I'm asleep, there's a very good chance I'll have overlooked some really nice photos. Like you said, many factors. I try not to stress too much about it. Sometimes I'll try to go back through people's timelines to catch up – but then I get self-conscious, about being late to the party, or having picked only that one and none of the newer ones, or…