The Diminishing Returns of Free Spaces...

As the saying goes, if the product is free, you are the product.

We had myspace, and that was kind of a weird thing, then Tumblr happened and it was amazing until Yahoo absolutely destroyed it as they absolutely destroy everything they touch, then Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and all these platforms that were once interesting slowly (and sometimes quickly) turned into absolute sewers.

My most popular instagram post of all time. Four thousand views. Less than 8% were my followers.

I’ve kept a website in some way shape or form for near 25 years now. I learned HTML and CSS way back when and hand coded sites and eventually got into wordpress and published a whole bunch of wildly erratic, esoteric, hap-hazard versions of what I thought was an interesting web presence and integrated it all into social media platforms. It was fun and new and I enjoyed it and it gave me the feeling that not only was I sharing my work but creating something interesting online that people might enjoy.

But alas, net neutrality died and “social media” was sold to the highest bidder and the days of tumblr and flickr and blogspot and all the other platforms that simply provided a space just went away, bulldozed and corrupted in the pursuit of capital. So it goes, and we’re left with ever more intrusive apps on the black mirror that want nothing more than all our content and all of our attention for free, and in return they show us ads and memes and pornography and garbage, generating incomprehensible wealth for everyone but those who are actually creating things.

Artist, dies of exposure, film at eleven…

“Content.” A funny concept these days. If I’m ever referred to as a content creator, please euthanize me.

We’ve been giving these platforms (multi-national corporations) our content (creative works) for free for so many years and in return we’ve been sold to, censored, shadow-banned, spammed, deleted and shit on. Destroyed by a simple change to the algorithm. Shutdown for speaking our minds. Banned for sharing out creative pursuits.

It is now perfectly legitimate to claim that immigrants are “pieces of shit” but the human figure remains obscene and unacceptable in the public discourse. How far we’ve fallen, with an array of pay to play platforms that now prioritize hate speech over human beauty to generate revenue. I find it difficult to take seriously the musings of a man that wears a million dollar wrist watch. He’s only in it for himself, and the entire thing has become untenable.

I’ve decided to extract myself from all meta platforms entirely. Instagram and facebook, have become unbearable and quite frankly are of no benefit to anyone aside from the owners and shareholders. At the end of the day, I own this space, my own space, which I’ve bee publishing to for near 25 years now. It is a record, one that will remain, regardless of the whims of billionaires, at least until I stop paying the bill.

If I’m honest, the returns have been far greater in my small corner of the web than I’ve ever enjoyed on any platform I’ve ever been a part of. I’ll be posting here almost exclusively from here on out.

There is a shift. Own your space. Say what you need to say. Publish the things you wish to see in the world. That’s what the internet was built for. Take it back.

Laying Low, Trying To Figure It All Out...

Well it’s January, and 2025 already feels like a slog. I guess I just thought we were headed in another direction. The hate and the chaos is completely draining and seemingly inescapable. I was in Mexico for a spell last week, having a perfectly civil conversation with a guy from Nebraska, which he abruptly ended when he discovered I was from San Francisco. Who could blame him, apparently “liberals” now cause forest fires. It’s just exhausting.

San Francisco, Dystopian Hell-Scape. Please, stay away…

A prolonged news and media fast has left me thinking about the amount of time I sink into social media and the increasing lack of any sort of return for the effort, let alone benefit to my own work in any way. In the wake of Meta’s refusal to moderate content, even my once benign Instagram feed is becoming pretty disgusting. I think my days of maintaining any sort of presence there are numbered.

Either way, it’s led me to think about why I started chasing pictures to begin with. It’s the permanence of the thing. The object itself, and the story behind it. I’ve grown weary of fleeting images, flickering by in a feed, once scrolled past, gone forever, lost in the ether of the platform, monetized for a moment to benefit those that could change the world for the better with the stroke of a pen, and choose not to. I’ve become exhausted by platforms that deliver nothing. Social media is a disease.

Perhaps I’ll try a little different approach and simply post my work here, write about it, and share it with those who are interested. It feels, oddly enough, much more productive than screaming into the void of the algorithm.

I put together a small exhibition some years ago, “Unwritten Notes” was comprised entirely of work made “elsewhere.” On the road, in transit, away from my home. Disjointed perhaps, but very autobiographical. For years I’ve toyed with the idea of putting a larger body of text to the images, stories behind the pictures, now seems like as good a time as any to get started.

So if you’re getting this, expect more. I never believed art could save the world, but it can’t hurt and it can keep me sane. So in the face of all this manufactured chaos and disinformation and hate and willful ignorance I'm making pictures, experiencing things, sharing with my community, and publishing whatever I can, wherever I can.

Stay tuned…