29
THE FUTURE OF FLICKR
‘The world’s most-beloved,
money-losing business needs your help...’
place, but if I do the same thing on
Instagram, the top posts tend to be
of influencers posing somewhere in
Brighton, even if it’s their Airbnb or
their food.’ Kev for President!Early advocates
Award-winning street
photographer Maciej Dakowicz
was an early advocate of Flickr, yet
hisenthusiasmhassincewaned.
I askedhimwhy.‘I joinedFlickrin
2005 andit wasverymodernand
fresh,muchbetterthananyother
photo-sharingplatforms.Before,
mymainphotoplatformswere
TrekEarthandPBase,butwhen
Flickrarrivedeveryonemoved
there.Therewasa groupcalled
HardcoreStreetPhotography
(HCSP)andit becamethehubof
theinternet’sstreetphotography
“revival”around2010,that’swhere
JohnMaloofaskedwhattodowith
hisnewlyboughtnegativesofthis
unknownphotographercalled
VivianMaierin 2009 (www.flickr.
com/groups/94761711@N00/
discuss/72157622552378986/).
‘Thegroupstillexistsalthough
it’snotsoimportantanymore.
Therewereothergroups,somevery
activewiththousandsofmembers.
I remembera popularonerunby
LonelyPlanet,I actuallywona
coupleofguidebooks.Manyeditors
fromvariousmediausedit for
scoutingforphotosandI made
quitea fewsalesthroughthe
platform,withmyphotoslanding
invariousmagazinesandon
severalbookcovers.I thinkthemain issue with Flickr and a reason
it never properly took off, is that
very few well-known
photographers joined it. Somehow
they thought it was not cool for
them to share photos there, while it
is completely cool for them now to
share photos on Instagram. I
remember Martin Parr joined
Flickr and participated in some
discussionsinHCSPbuthenever
postedanyphotos.Anotherissueis
theExplorepage(www.flickr.com/
explore)thatis supposedto
showcasethebestrecentphotos,
butwhichis simplyhorrible.The
algorithmforselectingphotosforit
is completelyrandomandeach
timeI openthispageit makesme
wanttoquit.Flickrshouldhave
investedsomemoneyinto
developinga betteralgorithmor
employingsomeeditorstocurate
thepageproperly.’MaciejforVice
President!Overwhelming
Youcanseea differentpicturebya
differentphotographerevery
secondoftheyearonFlickr.It can
beoverwhelming,likelivinginany
community.Decidewhatyouwant
togetoutofit beforeyoujoinit,
onceyoudojoinit,beproactive.
Photographstomanyaremore
personalthanwords.It’simportant
tofinda safehomeforthemwhere
theycanbecherishedandshared.
Wherephotographersaretreated
asa priorityandempoweredtotell
thestoriestheywanttotell.A
utopianplaceforphotographersby
photographers.Allthings
considered,thereareworseplaces
tovisitthanplanetFlickr...
OrsoI thought.
On 19 December2019,Dan
MacAskillreleaseda candidopen
plea,whichread‘Theworld’s
most-beloved,money-losing
businessneedsyourhelp’.The
revealingstatementadmitsFlickr
is stillfarfromprofitableand
appealstophotographerstosign
uptoFlickrPro.‘Please,helpus
makeFlickrthrive.Helpusensure
it hasa brightfuture,’implores
MacAskill.It seemsthatplanet
Flickrmayyetbesuckedintothe
blackholeofhistory,along
withbillionsofimages.Editor’s note: Amateur Photographer also
contacted Flickr for input on this piece, but
it declined to comment.© MACIEJ DAKOWICZ
© KEVIN MEREDITH