Getting Your Artwork Into The World

Today, getting your photography out into the public can take a wide variety of forms. Unlike past times when your main outlet was in a gallery or publishing a photography book, you can now exhibit your photography to the outside world with the click of a few buttons. The most evident way of showcasing your work in our digital world is through social media or via your own website, and you have 100% agency over what is being placed on the Internet.

Instagram is an incredibly easy way to show your photography, or even other artwork, as the entire platform concept relies on people wanting to share their photos and spreading the word with hashtags. While individual photographers have taken to posting their own work, a few of my favorites being both famous photographers such as Stephen Shore and new photographers such as Kyle McDougall. Both of these photographers allow the viewer to engage with their work in a way that would be different than looking at one of their books or having the opportunity to catch a gallery showing, with location tags, captions, and even chatting with their followers in the comments.

Not only have individual photographers taken a liking to Instagram, but accounts that showcase a wide variety of photographers have also grown dedicated followings. There are more traditional, agency-style Instagram accounts such as Magnum Photos and BFA that showcase photography captured by their employees, but also more unconventional accounts that have fostered a tight-knit community. Accounts such as Aint-Bad, "An Independent Publisher of New Photographic Art" and Subjectively Objective both feature photo galleries on their Instagram, but also author longer form posts about photographers and independently publish artist work on their websites: aint-bad.com and subjectivelyobjective.com.

Thus, our current digital era has fostered entirely new means for photographers to get their work into the world and gain traction that might not have been fostered otherwise. Even the most amateur of photographers are able to showcase their work in their own unique way, uninfluenced by greater forces. We are now allowed to find our own way in the world before being instructed exactly what to do from day one.