Snappage

Over at Flickr.com I'm deciding to withdraw from active service: mainly for the reasons included at the end of this (rather more well-balanced) report (even though the 'backing up photos for free' argument holds no water at all).

I'm all for change, but when the CEO of Yahoo says something as idiotic as this, I begin to suspect motives that undercut our notions of value in the professional photographic world.

I'm in no way a professional photographer. I'm a rank amateur and I'm not even sure WHY I take photographs, but nearly ten years on Flickr have taught me that photo sharing often leads to dull, generic ideas about aesthetics; rampant egotism and mindless plagiarism (and yes, I include myself in all of these categories).

What's more I don't want to live in a world where photography as an art is so undervalued as to be cast aside by some faceless corporation. The world is filled with great photographers. I suspect that very few of them are on Flickr (although if you look at my favourites page you may find one or two).

If this all sounds massively self-regarding please forgive me. But in a world where photography becomes nothing more than a short cut to the ego I realise that nine times out of ten I take pictures for all of the wrong reasons. I have to stop sometime. Maybe we should all take this amazing woman's example to heart.

In the meantime, if I have anything at all to say, I'll say it here.