The weight of a like❤️

Before I started taking photography seriously, I saw Instagram mainly as a place where people shared pieces of their lives with friends and strangers. I posted occasionally, but I was never a heavy user.

Once photography became more important to me, I changed my Instagram profile to present myself as a photographer and began posting more regularly, hoping that my photographs would be seen, discovered, and appreciated.

At the same time, I started looking more closely at other photographers’ work and occasionally leaving likes.

But I am the type who don’t often give likes, and I give likes to your post doesn’t mean I want likes from you or I want you to become my follower.

I like your post simply because I think your photograph is great.

Although my theory is that simple, thinking this way is draining me.

Am I overthinking it? Or am I simply not very good at playing this game?

pigeons experiment🧪

I once read Irresistible by Adam Alter, a book about how technology is designed to hold our attention. One part that stayed with me was the experiment involving pigeons.

When the pigeons received food at unpredictable intervals, they kept returning and repeating the same action, never knowing when the next reward would come. The uncertainty made the reward more powerful.

Instagram feels similar to me. I post a photograph, put my phone down, and then find myself returning to the app, although my first intention is to check something else. I don’t enjoy likes and giving likes, but if one wants to stay active and connected, one must play this game under the mechanism of likes.

Most importantly, our time is wasted during the time of returning to check, unlimited rolling in the unlimited pool, giving likes and wishing to be liked.

Lately I’ve felt increasingly resistant to posting my photographs on Instagram. It is not that I no longer want to share my work. I simply do not want the experience of making and seeing photographs to be controlled by likes, numbers, and the habit of checking for approval.

I still want my photographs to be seen, but I want them to be encountered more slowly - in my newsletter, on my website.

More precisely…

I want my photographs to find you, and not to be found by you.

Since pigeons have been mentioned at the start of this newsletter, I think I will share three photographs I took on pigeons.

I want to say the sharing is purely a coincidence.

#1

I first noticed that these two pigeons were staying unusually close to each other, almost like a couple. One of them kept leaning in, looking for a chance to kiss the other. I missed the moment the first time, so I decided to wait…

#2

#3

I had no idea whether they would repeat it, but after a while, the pigeon moved closer again — and that is how the second and third photographs came to be.

These two pigeons look like a couple. One keeps trying to get closer, while the other seems upset and deliberately ignores it.

I found their little interaction surprisingly amusing. I wanted to capture the moment when they finally became close again, and when it happened, I felt that the wait was worthwhile.

I also like the light and shadows on the ground. They make this ordinary moment feel a little more special, as if the two pigeons have their own small space in the middle of the city.