Flirting with the Devil
I originally wrote this back in October of 2012. Not much has changed since then, except that Time’s Lightbox is now a sad parody of the legacy of what Time Magazine once stood for. Exhibit A — the piece the ran on Steve McCurry’s Valentino campaign. What the hell?
Besides that, I’m also on Instagram myself these days. You can follow me here. My excuse? It’s a good place to post pictures that I wouldn’t normally share on my website, my children like it, and it’s easy. A slippery slope I know. Easy isn’t normally the creatives friend.
This post was originally titled, Instagram, the Devil, and You. It was written in response to Time Magazine’s decision to assign photographers to document Hurricane Sandy hitting the greater New York area with iPhones and also to incorporate Instagram’s feed into their coverage.
When a photojournalist uses Instagram, the devil smiles. He keeps it handy, in the top drawer of his toolbox, sitting right next to true love.
Like most of his tricks, it promises the user fame, fortune and the admiration of one’s betters. Despite knowing this to be a lie, photographers, even the good ones, often succumb to the temptation.
