I found this article in Professional Photographer Magazine, and I couldn't agree more with 40+ year photographer Sandro Miller. Let's print!

More recently, he’s struggled with social media’s influence on photography and believes it’s created a “false identification” of what a professional photographer is and why one should be hired. “I and many other photographers have spent our whole lives—30, 40, 50 years—making our craft what it is, [perfecting] our style, and working on it, and we live, eat, die, sleep photography. We didn’t wake up with a cell phone in our hand and take photographs and start getting followers and then start getting hired because we have followers.” Social media has also drawn people away from print and from visiting exhibitions of photography, Miller says. People are missing out when they view photos solely as three-quarters of an inch by three-quarters of an inch squares. “What is getting lost is the true experience, the true engagement of an image on a wall that is powerful, that moves you, and that now you can turn to the person next to you and have a conversation about. You can’t do that on Instagram. It’s click, next image. Click, next image.” Nevertheless, he’s had to embrace social media to keep up with the times. “Do I love it? No, I hate it. I think it’s silly. I think it’s so self-serving. I guess I’m just not that guy who wants to put myself in front of the camera, and shoot these selfies and behind-the-scenes images. I am more private than I think social media allows you to be, so it’s been a challenge.”

Sandro Miller in Professional Photographer Magazine, September 2018, “It’s Personal”, by Amanda Arnold

Professional Photographers of America