Home, Without the Algorithms
Reactivated my Squarespace this weekend. I’d canceled my subscription months ago, convinced Substack might be a better home after hearing YouTube photographers hype it as the “next Instagram” for visual creators. But once I dove in, I realized those currents run fast—and they favor a certain kind of talent and timing. There are hundreds of incredible photographers on there now, many of whom have earned their followings. A few posts were enough to show me that whatever I was putting out simply wasn’t going to surface in that sea. Accepting that took some humility, but truth has a way of tapping your shoulder until you face it.
So I cleared out the handful of posts I’d shared, took a breath, and returned to the quieter space of my own blog under a new domain.
I can’t afford photography school, and I’m probably past the age where finding a mentor feels realistic. So I’ve kept walking this path alone, as I have for more than a decade—learning, stumbling, doubting, and still somehow refusing to put the camera down. Why? Because the moment I step outside, the world starts speaking in light. And how do you turn away from that? How do you ignore something that pulls you forward again and again?
I go where the light leads—sometimes with a camera, sometimes without, but preferably with one so I can try to catch not just what I see, but what it makes me feel. Maybe someone out there will feel it too.
So I’m back here, in a space that’s mine—free from the push to please an algorithm or chase attention I’m not built for. Maybe a few people will stop by; maybe not. But in this corner of the internet, I get to experiment, fail, grow, and keep walking toward whatever the light shows me next.
