INFLUENCER: Attempt to gain as many likes and views as possible while building following.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Make the most unique photographs possible.
Now, I know what you are thinking. Dan, can you be both? Sure. There are a select few influencers who make solid work, and there are photographers who are pseudo-influencers, but the way I see things, these are two very different jobs. And don’t hold me to it, but I think I feel a change in the wind. I’m starting to see brands tire of hiring influencers. I’m seeing some brands going back to hiring photographers, and other brands hiring a photographer for the first time. Have we regained our senses?
Doubtful, but it is fun to see.
Influencers tend to lack training, lack context and make content more than photography, but don’t let this fool you into thinking what they do doesn’t require skill. It does. It requires quite a lot actually. Working as an influencer requires you to suspend belief, suspend reality, and perform for the camera. Often times, that camera is pointed back at the influencer themselves, something mostly counterintuitive to photographers who spend their lives pointing the camera out into the world and not back at themselves. For me personally, I instantly feel lesser as soon as the camera comes my way.
Influencers are real-time share types. Everything is fair game as it happens, while photographers need to curate and edit. It’s not that influencers don’t do this. In fact, many influencers operate in a hyper-curated world where every single move is crafted to perform, but it’s often entirely fake. Everyone involved knows its fake, including the audience, but this is where the suspended reality comes in. I know you are conning me, and I’m conning you, but we are both going to play along with this because I want to be entertained. This is fast food content meant to be consumed with a thumb swipe in less than fifteen seconds.
The HOPE with photography is that is lasts longer. Our world is no longer build for longer lasting, however. We are instant gratification. Single serve. Photography is a marathon in a world consumed by the sprint, and it’s not even the hundred yard dash. Try the forty, at best. But consider this. How many influencer works will be remember a year from now? Ten years? Now ask yourself the same thing about the best photographs. When I think of history, even recent history, and I close my eyes and conjure up the lasting visual impacts, I sure as Hell don’t see influencer work.
But to work as a photographer now is an uphill battle. Science and technology are against you. So is the knowledge level of those doing the hiring. There are plenty of folks in positions of power who don’t know the difference between influencer and photographer. I know, I’ve been asked more times than I can count. Two years ago I was invited to a marketing meeting at an “outside” brand meaning not Blurb. The team presented a “photographer” they were considering partnering with. “Here he is,” they said. “He has 500,000 followers on IG.” I took one look at this person’s feed and said, “Wait, that’s not a photographer, that’s an influencer.” Their marketing head started to squirm and asked “What do you mean?” I said, “Look at his feed. There isn’t a single unique image. He’s creating generic content that fits the algorithm.”
I then asked their team to bring up another photographer on Instagram, someone with only 80,000 followers. “Look at that,” I said. “There is no fat. Each image is unique to the job and the photographer has a look that is native ONLY to them. If you want that look, you have to hire that photographer. That is what photography is.” What did they do? No idea. My guess, they hired the influencer who most likely provided almost no ROI. Why do I say this? Because that is what happens with the vast majority of influencer content. It doesn’t work.
Something else I’ve noticed with influencers is a near total lack of loyalty. The day their campaign ends with you they are going after your direct competitors. I’ve seen this happen again and again. Now, you might say “Well, that’s just business,” and I would agree, at least to some degree. I’ve seen the same photographer take sponsorship from Epson, Leica, Nikon, Sony, and Fujifilm. By the fourth brand everyone is thinking “Okay, this person will probably take money from anyone.”
Our world is filled with noise. You have to make a specific effort to tune it out otherwise your position will be overrun. Our election was three days ago, and I’ve yet to go online. I’ve yet to see anything pertaining to the outcome. I know who won and who lost. What else to I need to know at the moment? Do I need to watch recaps and rehashes? One side gloating while the other tries to save face. Nope. I’ve got work to do.
And this noise describes how I feel about the difference between influencers and photographers. It’s like music. Elevator music verses a Miles Davis solo. You are aware the elevator music is there, and you are aware of how awful it is, but it never truly penetrates your being. While photography is a sound that forces you to confront and control. Photography haunts you like a trumpet note from the devil himself. Let’s let Miles explain this in his own way.
“Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.”
― Miles Davis
I heard Miles Davis for the first time in an apartment on Bd des Filles du Calvaire in Paris. The owner was a photographer who circumnavigated the world around the equator. She created an incredible book. It took years of hardship, dedication, perseverance, and most likely some luck. She is not an influencer but she doesn’t need to be because she has the work. There is no denying it. And there is no other body of work quite like it. It will live on shelves for decades to come. Pulled off, inspected. Its residue coating the minds of the next generation and the next. Maybe not all, but my guess, many. And many of the ones that can see through the noise. Many of the ones that will go on to their own greatness.
This is by no means a comprehensive comparison between these two pastimes. I’ve spent my life around photographers, so there is a real bias. However, when I’m around influencer friends there is an unspoken feeling of shame. They know the path they have chosen isn’t their only option. They know becoming an influencer was a short-term trade, a gold-rush moment, a kick to the hands grasping for the life raft. I find it more and more difficult to be around these folks. Perhaps its my allergy to phoniness. Perhaps it’s my ability to judge someone’s acting chops. When Streep and Day-Lewis exist, your dance in front of your phone just doesn’t contain even a trace element of relevancy. Or perhaps it’s the title itself “influencer,” which should be called “salesperson.” Even the name is phony.
If you are a brand lead, do yourself a favor and think long-term for once. Think about whether or not you actually like the brand you represent. Really like. Believe in it. If not, disregard the rest of this post. But if you do believe in the brand, live and breath it, then think about what you want to leave behind. Remember, we used to create legendary marketing campaigns. Campaigns from decades ago that top agency folks, and the public, still talk about today.(Just Do It.) Influencers won’t get you there, but a great photographer can. But it will take commitment in the face of cold, hard, data. It will take risk. And it will take a possible restructure.
Just to give you one more example, Apple’s “Think Different” campaign which ran from 1997 to 2002, which in today’s terms might as well have been from 1800 to 1900. What comprised this campaign? Black and white still images from real photographers. Apple’s stock price tripled in the first twelve months after the campaign launched. Einstein, Picasso, MLK, Cesar Chavez, etc. Simple but solid images. That’s all. Imagine that campaign with images of an influencer. Could it work? Yep, in the short term maybe. But ultimately, the public knows the difference between Rosa Parks or Amelia Earhart and Kim Kardashian. At least that is what I tell myself.
When I see brands partner with influencers it always feels like the culprit is a lack of critical thinking. You KNOW the conversations that happen behind the scenes when people with talent lower the bar. “Are we REALLY going to do this?” Like when a brand jumps from Instagram to TikTok. Turn the camera off, wipe your phone, erase your fingerprints from the door handle. NOBODY wants to be around when the leak happens. Plausible deniability is better than admitting you stood in line at the peep show.
Comments 22
I hear what you’re saying, Dan, and am in no position to disagree with any of this, but it doesn’t change the fact that phoniness is winning over authenticity by a mile. And the longer this continues, the fewer people there are left who can even spot that someone is trying to con them. Quite a few people seem to like the magic of being conned.
Author
That’s why I started the post with “doubtful.” However, I am seeing and hearing things that make me believe a certain percentage is tiring of the con. And to your second point, not so sure. My nieces are 13 and 15 and can smell a con a mile away.
I’m glad that teenagers are able to see a con a mile away… considering the staggering con that the USA (and the world) has suffered this week.
Author
I think the election was a reflection of who the country actually is. We like to paint ourselves as the white hat wearing nation of do-gooders, but that doesn’t apply. It never has. We have done and do good things but we are a nation of fearful, finger pointing, reactionary folks who don’t know history, geography or much else. And we just proved how easy it is to con us. You could see this coming a mile away. When people kept saying “Harris is going to win,” I just kep thinking “Oh, you don’t know the country.” The minute the Supreme Court gave Donny total immunity the election was over, in one way or another.
For me, it comes down to whether the artist leads their audience, or they succumb to the opposite. Content creators or influencers have fallen to “audience capture.” The algorithm, the likes, mentions, and the downloads train their focus into a generic loop of acceptable “work” that satiates and soothes the audience, but never challenges it. I don’t believe one can be both artist and influencer. Eventually the artist will be called to be more than a medium through which influence is passed, to follow a hunch, and step into the real process of discovery.
Author
Well said. That is spot on. I am influenced by so many but I would not call them influences, nor would they.
“But ultimately, the public knows the difference between Rosa Parks or Amelia Earhart and Kim Kardashian.” I could go on a diatribe about how and why much of the public doesn’t even want to know the difference between them. It takes too much time and heaven forbid they might miss the next meaningless post that will be forgotten in seconds. Running from one spike of the online equivalent of caffeine to the next there is no time to be lost.
But…
I’d rather remark about the photograph you posted. Absolutely love it. In my tiny circle of fellow photographers there are a couple of people who like to remove what they call distractions from an image. Like the leaves overhead, the backpack and baton on the left, the handle of the baton on the right. But without all that the image becomes static and I would feel less like I am seeing the scene through your eyes. The “V” formed by the officers, the officers looking left while two are scoping you out, the woman on the sidewalk, the kids in the far background… foreground, middle ground background, there are so many lessons in this image you could do an entire class on it.
Author
It’s interesting you say that. You are correct that a lot of the public probably has no idea who those women are. Again, we are super dumb here. But I think deep down, IF they knew, they would know the difference even if admitting they didn’t care. As for the photo, an entire backstory to this baby. They attacked soon after I made this. I was tentative making this picture because you could feel something about to blow. They shot the buy behind me in the head with a rubber bullet. He sued, with the help of Jessie Jackson, and won a case against LAPD who were totally out of control during this entire event.
I doubt anyone under 50 knows who Rosa Parks is, sadly.
Author
You might be right.
„It will take risk“ – Not just from the brand people but the photographer as well. Guess it takes more courage to try to see things from a new perspective and try to create original work than delivering a set of images that looks like everything else on the market.
Author
My question is, if we arent’ attempting to make unique work then why are we shooting?
Agreed, that is indeed a question to ask. However I imagine it quite difficult for people without formal training in photography (like myself) to find the right resources to learn from, so that they even start asking themselves that question. If you find your way to photography from the “online world” that may not be a natural thought.
Author
There are SO many resources now. But you won’t find them on YouTube. Well, you can find certain things about REAL working photographers you might find helpful. https://youtu.be/cxDp-ljM9o0?si=GBFtsmrKqTilgqwi
Yeah, love the first photo, Kind of Gray.
Author
Another version of this sold quite nicely over the years. Stock, back when stock was a thing.
Well, given the recent election, the majority of Americans still fucking love a con, love an influencer, love the quick and the easy and the superficial. But if that’s what it takes, I’d rather live in my minivan and get one picture I can look at and know I captured something that made me want to keep trying.
Author
Yes, you can’t put “the public” and “intelligent” or “pioneering” together. Americans eat fast food an average of twenty times per month. The majority don’t hold a passport. Our education system sucks. Our health care is solid but the system is rigged. It goes on and on. We have learned to settle and we LOVE being conned as long as we are entertained.
In-flu-encer: A person capable of inoculating the virus of deception and corrupting the minds of those who watch them. The first time I saw Polar Night, I fell in love. I liked it so much that I started researching the author of the work, Mark Mahaney. And that’s when I realized there was a difference when it came to influencers. He is a true photographer, capable not only of creating advertisements (in the form of a story — the Timeless campaign for Levi’s) but also of telling his own stories with a personal narrative.
This is something an influencer cannot do. The difference is simple. The influencer calls themselves a photographer like someone who says they’re a pianist just because they own a piano. The reality is that the influencer cannot do what the photographer does; they don’t understand storytelling, they only think of a single image and claim it has a story. But it’s not true. The photographer understands storytelling and, if they want, knows how to create content. For the influencer, it’s only empty content, with a lot of technique and post-processing.
I know, truth is harsh.
Author
You know the truth. Which puts you squarely in the minority. Influencers are salespeople, not artists. They sell whatever comes their way. Hotels, cameras, backpacks, etc. Nothing wrong with it unless you confuse them for photographers.
I’m a little more sympathetic than you, Dan- there are so many people who truly love photography, and in an ever dwindling market see influencing as a viable way to make money with a camera.
I bet most would also wish to be free of the shackles of the algorithm and make their own work, given the choice.
Author
They are salespeople. They could free themselves but most likely are content doing what they are doing. My point was to not confuse them for photographers. Two different jobs and species. The people who work as photographers aren’t on assignment to shoot footage of themselves while soft selling backpacks. Photographers are hired to make pictures.