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What is peace of mind worth to you as a photographer? That’s a question that I’ve been asking myself for a while now. In many ways, it comes in the form of prints and not being bombarded by notifications or going down rabbit holes not associated with photography. Sometimes, I really just want to look at photos and interact with other people who care about their images — not reels. Last month, I took all traditional social media off my phone because of it. One of the few apps that I kept doesn’t feel like social media — it feels like a photography community. When I tell you that it’s VSCO, let me further explain to you why.
This article is presented in partnership with VSCO.
In 2022, we said that VSCO doesn’t have a soul-sucking algorithm. That’s part of the promise the former Adobe Alums at the head of VSCO are making for the platform’s users. And a year ago, they gave the platform a better sense of community through Spaces. I’ve been actively exploring it as an alternative to Instagram. Most definitely, my friends, network, and family are split between Reddit, Instagram, and Facebook. But taking those apps off of my phone felt like an act of wellness and self-care I didn’t realize I needed. In contrast, VSCO doesn’t make you glued to your phone and doesn’t feed off of an attention economy. Instead, the community checks you on whether or not your work is actually good. And I’d know this for a fact. There was a period where every time I logged into VSCO, I’d get tons of notifications from the Asian American Pacific Islander community that someone had reposted or favorited a specific photo of mine.
It fascinated me. I know I wouldn’t get that kind of interaction on other platforms because of how they work. So, I posted other photographs from that shoot to see how they performed. Just as I suspected, the community checked me on it and made me realize that my original photo was the best one in their own unique way.
That’s a conversation around authenticity that I think many photographers need to have with themselves in the post-Covid world of photography. It starts with asking yourself whether or not you’re pleasing an AI-based algorithm or if you’re pleasing humans. The question then delves into the idea of creating captivating work or feeding the attention economy. Photographers got big through social media because of the attention economy, but in doing that, many of them lost their original identities to the algorithms. VSCO brings it back to really just emphasizing your best work.
“VSCO believes AI can be a powerful tool to help build great experiences for photographers, and ML supports the development of those AI systems. We use AI today to help creators edit their photos with recommended presets, find inspiration and network with others. As with everything we create, we put the photographers first — creating a human centered, AI assisted environment.”
Josh Attenberg, Head of Data
One of the best parts of VSCO is Spaces — you can think of them as groups centered around a common interest. VSCO spaces are separate from the main feed — which is a great way to share and like work from other people. It doesn’t allow you to comment on the work though — but that’s coming soon as it’s been requested by the community. It’s a place for Good Vibes only. No one will troll you; if they don’t like your work, they will either unfollow you or move right on.
Another way to interact with photographers and join Discussions is by diving into Spaces — a perk of VSCO Plus membership which starts at around $30/year. Yes, you’re paying for it — and there are no ads or other annoyances. Anyone can browse and join VSCO Spaces, but if you want to create your own, you must pay. I’m fine with this because it also means I’m not being served many ads. I don’t get served ads anyway on VSCO; and I understand small-company sustainability to ensure places like this can keep existing for photographers like me.
On Spaces, I can take my time. I don’t need to consistently post photos to please an algorithm and appear in someone’s feed. Instead, it’s all just chronological. I post whenever I want to. Sometimes, I’ll stumble upon an image that I forgot about laying dormant in my archive that I really liked or didn’t fully appreciate. So I’ll share it in Spaces and often get a lot of interaction around the image. Folks will comment, follow me, like my images, share my photos, etc. Spaces bring people back to your profile, where they find more of your work and choose to follow you, hire you, etc.
Specifically, I dove into the street photography community on VSCO and, more recently, the portrait photography community. VSCO breaks spaces down into categories, but photographers can feel free to search for their own and start their own. There are several street photography spaces, and each one truly does feel a bit different. What you post in one space might get a lot of interaction but won’t necessarily get a lot in another space. Some spaces in the street photography community value more urban geometry, while others emphasize the candid moment. Spaces aren’t curated like the Hardcore Street Photography Group on Flickr, and arguably, they don’t really need to be. Photographers are using them to see which photo of a set works best or for feedback and interaction. Most importantly, it’s a place for passionate photographers. Folks aren’t making reels with tons of text or AI-generated voice bots.
What’s most important, though, is that people are just good to one another. They don’t have agendas or egos that are looking to take other people around them a step down. There’s no drama — and that’s the best part of it. Everyone can actually co-exist.
Eventually, you tend to find your people in one space over another. As you post, you’ll get feedback, have conversations, and people will interact with one another via the platform’s various ways. Sometimes, when I post an image on my main feed, I’ll see photographers that I’ve met in spaces repost the photos in their own feeds. It’s a subtle but nice form of gratification.
Spaces and VSCO aren’t about going viral because VSCO itself isn’t based on an attention economy since the new heads took over. Instead, it’s about complimenting your website as a place where you authentically do your best work. It’s also a great place to play around and see what edits of yours might work or not. Luckily, VSCO’s photo editor uses the company’s history of making film presets and more to lead you to edits you possibly never even considered.
Several years ago, I took a one year long break from Instagram and felt incredible because of it. And right now, I’m very happy with VSCO as a place for photography first. Most importantly, it’s made me realize that social media isn’t where I can put a real emphasis on art.
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