by Brad Puet | Apr 6, 2012 | 24HRProject, Brad Puet
This week We Are Juxt will be sharing with you stories from the amazing 24 Hour Project that Renzo @aliveinnyc and Sam @whittiersam organized on March 24, 2012. We Are Juxt has a few photographers who participated and in celebration of such a worldwide event, wanted to give you summaries of their 24 hours in their respective cities. To see some more of the work of over 65 photographers, in 35 countries, and 5 continents, visit @24hourproject.
My 24 Hours: Seattle, WA
First of all BIG thanks to Renzo and Sam for their hard work in getting us all organized and ready to shoot for 24 hours straight. What a task! Gotta say though it definitely pushed me to shoot low light situations and forced me to figure out how I wanted to document my city. It was rough since I was the only one that I knew of from Seattle actually doing it and so big shouts to those who came out for a bit to shoot with me and especially to those who supported me doing this.
Shoutouts
Before I jump into this, I want to let ya’ll know I centered my DB (Ryan Coleman) when writing this, thus all the hyper-links (I especially like the Seattle Hot Dog Link)…if you know whats good for you as far as history lessons with a dash of humor, a dash of awesome, a dash of “OMG”, and some serious mobile and big camera photography you will go up to the top and search his articles. Check his latest with the Nirvana Series – a personal favorite! BAM, if he had a book, you best buy (get it)!
Got to shoot some night shots with @thisguyfel and he let me use his tripod for the rest of the time I was shooting. Also to close out @boohi_bronson came out with me on the last leg of the project. Also, I have to shoutout Sam (LA) and Tony (Detroit). For the most part, we were in contact every few hours on how we are doing and what our energy levels were like. Tony and I were the only ones in our city (I was in contact with) shooting so we kinda had this unsaid thing to check up on each other also. Some of Seattle isn’t safe for shooting especially at night, and for damn sure Detroit has its parts where it’s not that safe. Seattle has had a spree of cell phone muggings and I didnt want to be a part of that, Tony was my text homie to keep in contact with.
So…
The first 12 hours started with a bboy/ bgirl competition held at the HG Lodge which is a local nightspot in Seattle. Some folks I knew promoted the event and although I looked silly to some folks with my mobile next to the big camera shooters, I was still proud to be able to say I got a few shots that we’re ok during those low light situations. Not only was it dark out, but in the club I was really looking for the light situations and trying to position myself where the light was more prominent. ON top of that shit, I WAS REALLY enjoying the idea of bboys/bgirls from my city teaming up with amateurs and drinking with them and still comin up with some crazy style and power moves. LOVED IT. Between each and every round, each participant took a shot of Jack Daniels. YO, pure entertainment!
After the competition and the club closed down, I thought why not stay up on Capitol Hill and get the folks who club and then get hungry. Their drunk asses had to look for sustenance right?!?! Each corner practically had a food vendor and Seattle is known for their hot dogs with cream cheese in them. If you’re ever out on the town in Seattle and you’re hungry after a night of drunken foolery and pickin up on the opposite or same sex, get yourself a cream cheese hot dog and truly be satisfied with a night complete of fun times. @thisguyfel and I walked up and down Pine Street from Broadway to 14th and back down. Lots of folks getting their eat on. Some drunk folks macking. Some drunk folks reliving their night. Some drunk folks meeting other drunk folks to figure out what drunk folks are supposed to do after getting drunk. Yea lots of that stuff. The cops were walking their beat. The food vendors were making their money. Folks were getting their Romancing the Stone on. What a better way to say I love you and Want YOU than leaning against a stop sign whispering sweet nothings and how your about to tap that…ok…you get the point…
The First 12 Hours
We decided to leave this drunken splendor and go to a city lookout. We went up to Jose Rizal Bridge which is south of the city on its way up to Beacon Hill. We decided to try and practice our night/city shots with the slow shutter app. Some folks were able to pull off some great stuff with long exposures on the big camera and slow shutter tries to do the same for the iPhone. Unfortunately the shots didn’t come out the way we wanted.
Well this died out pretty quickly and @thisguyfel ended up leaving me and I was running the streets solo. Now I forgot to mention earlier, that I hadn’t gotten any sleep since that Friday morning waking up for work. So by this time I had already been running without sleep for 21 hours. I had to get a power nap in. So I got in the car and went to Lake Washington and posted up for an hour nap. I had to =)
I did get some sunrise shots from the lake and decided that those were my own to keep. Plan on printing them and getting them to my boss (my wife) for dealing with me missing for this weekend. She was a trooper and so I hope that not only will she be cool with a sunrise print, but not rack up too many points towards a shopping spree that I know I owe her, YEA thanks a lot RENZO AND SAM!! =)
After this I had to take the son to soccer and do the dad duties for a couple hours so there were some missed opportunities I’m sure, but did get some more kiddo portraits and action shots of my little Pele’.
The last 12 hours I ended up walking downtown in crazy zombie fasihon. I took the train in from the Southend and got dropped off in Chinatown in hopes to capture the morning elders at Hing Hay Park and morning deliveries. From there I ended up going to as many portions of the downtown area I could. Chinatown, Pioneer Square, Waterfront up to the Sculpture Park, back down into the city through Westlake and Pike Place Market, then back down into Chinatown to get ready for an afternoon meeting at Mercer Island with the Juxt partners. There were the typical Seattle tourists and street performers, very minimal Occupy Seattle coverage (which honestly really disappointed me since the day turned out to be real beautiful).
The day was sunny and in the late 50’s low 60’s. IT was great for chasing light. I’d say the bulk of my submissions for the project will probably be from during this time. My energy was pretty high considering I was really working towards almost 40 hours with only 1 hour of sleep.
The Final 12 Hours
After the Juxt partners meeting, @boohi_bronson and I went out and I had already planned what I wanted to end up doing. Seattle iconic shit. The Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center…as much of Seattle Center as I could and end it at Dicks on Broadway. There’s always people there on a Saturday night before midnight. I broke out the tripod and set up shop. These last couple to few hours of shooting is where I got the most interaction from strangers.
“Is that, is that an iPhone on that tripod?”
“I’ve never seen that done before.”
“REALLY?!?! you need a tripod for that?”
“Can I see some of your photos?”
“You did that on an iPhone?”
“That’s from an iPhone?”
“REALLY!?!?! that’s from an iPhone?!?!?”
Through all these discussions I was able to throw out some of the projects like #Fuck_Racism and #HomelessInSeattle and definitely got them to start out on the social networks and get them involved with some of the photowalks by Igers Seattle and get involved with other mobile folks…It was pretty cool to meet folks who were interested. One woman in particular is a student at Cornish is working on getting me to talk to her class. She’s a photography major and the big thing they are talking about now is how viable is the art created by mobile devices. So I gave her my contact info in return for her flipping me the bird for the Fuck Racism Project with Marco and in support of the Trayvon Martin murder.
Closed out at Dick’s, and I didn’t get no burger and fries and large coke. Got some photos, got some good conversation, then bounced.
The 24 hour project was a really cool experience. Would I do it again? Possibly. The answer would be certain if I had folks who would do it with me. That way we could individually cover the city, meet up, chat, and then go back out again. I think that’ll definitely sway me to the HELL YEA answer.
Again thanks to Renzo and Sam for organizing. They have a lot of plans for this project and We Are Juxt is in full support.
by Brad Puet | Mar 6, 2012 | Brad Puet
Borrowed Time Chapter One
Borrowed Time Chapter Two
Borrowed Time Chapter Three
_________________________________
Who am I?
A white jacket lost in song. Old friends I remember but he has now forgotten in the music. Solace?
Qui suis-je?
Fear quelled in faith. The blood still drips from his hands like Longinus’s spear. Redemption?
Chi sono io?
One war traded for another. Drowning out the cries of the dead, that even deafness can’t silence. Perdition?
Quem sou eu?
Lost. His memories. His mind. Gone are the things we had to do. Paradise?
Sino Ako?
Stories told to a friend that remembers it all. A child wounded. A family to pray. A child that wounds. Fathers flailing fists. Mothers meth mouth. Two families in pain. A government that claims it cares. He will become me. Stories that shouldn’t be told, spilling secrets. My friends response. I know. Pain is short. I give him. Peace.
by Brad Puet | Feb 29, 2012 | Brad Puet
“I, like my brother, am a First Nations carver in the heritage and tradition of my people and my family who have been carving in Seattle since at least 1926. We give the John T. Williams totem pole to the City of Seattle in the hope that it will be a symbol of peace and honor for many generations.” – Rick Williams (pictured above), brother to slain First Nations wood carver John T. Williams
A man fatally shot by a Seattle police officer after being ordered to drop a knife often had difficulty hearing and understanding what was said to him, say people who knew him.
Officer Ian Birk shot and killed John T. Williams in August 2010, when Birk saw Williams holding a knife as he walked near downtown Seattle. The shooting was declared unjustified by a review board. Birk later resigned from the force.
Williams was a member of the Ditidaht First Nation, also a member nation of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth. The Ditidaht First Nation is a small, remote community on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Williams was a celebrated, seventh-generation carver who at times sold his work to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the Seattle waterfront.
Alex Castas, general manager of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the Seattle waterfront, said his shop has been buying carvings from Williams’ family for five generations, stretching back to the 1880s, when the shop used to buy from tribal members paddling up in canoes.
“It was unbelievable that this would happen in this day and age,” said Les Sam, chief of the Tseshaht First Nation in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island. The Tseshaht are one of 14 member nations of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council.
The inquest process is all about putting the dead man/woman, in this case John T. Williams, on trial — a fundamental disrespect, as well as deprivation of due process. As the saying goes, “dead men tell no tales,” and in the inquest Ian Birk spread as many dubious ideas, inconsistencies, and stereotypes as he could about this dead Native man in hopes of saving his own skin. In this instance, however, the dead man does tell us all a story.
He tells us that his carving knife was never a threat — his small knife, contrary to Ian Birk, was not open. He tells us that he was not walking toward Ian Birk as Birk contended — he was shot in the side four times. Most importantly, John T. Williams reminds us of the lesson of Lord Amherst: Do not accept or even feign belief in this process; these people show absolutely no humanity or honesty when their own are threatened. Watch out for these men and women who shoot first and ask questions last — they do not have your best interests at heart.
The family and friends of William started to work on this pole about a year ago. Its design is a perched eagle, a mother raven and the figure of a woodcarver.
The event, which occurred on the eve of what would have been Williams’ 52nd birthday, followed Native tradition, with the pole carried to its final destination amid singing and dancing to drums.
“To me, it was a healing and a blessing,” said Roger Miller, 48, who traveled from his home on the Muckleshoot reservation to carry the pole. “We stopped here and there, but we had determination.”
Although Nancy Williams, sister of John, carried a black flag bearing the message, “Stop police brutality,” she said she felt as if her brother were looking down on the crowd with a big smile, “telling us we did it.”
“It’s going to be a while before there’s any healing done. Especially with the way we lost John, there’s a long ways to go yet,” said Williams, 53, of Vancouver, B.C. “But today is about peace and honor.”
So instead of writing too much about it, I wanted to use what I shot in the format I’m most comfortable, to set pace with some quotes from articles that best (I thought) described the JTW story. In no way am I saying it’s the best stuff, but for the purpose of this post, I wanted to have my story brought in by fragments of the other writers. I believe like all things that happens in our society, whether good or bad, and in this case fucked up and plain out wrong, that everything is fragmented and hidden, and pieces are given to us by those in power to keep truth from really prevailing. The end all was this memorial. It will stand now in the presence of millions of visiting people to know that Seattle is not immune to any injustice handed down by our peace keepers. Ian Birk is a murderer of John T. Williams. A family and a community lost a loved one at the hands of a man who was pompous and arrogant in his work. He has since resigned so that is one less crooked cop BUT that also means that there is a “citizen” who is out on our streets who has taken a life without just cause. I have friends who are cops. I by no means am saying that they are bad. What I am saying is the system is fundamentally screwed and that some officers are being conditioned to carry on good ol boy tradition at the sake of the people they serve…whew…let me get *off my soapbox*
February 26 the totem was lifted. The community grieved together, prayed together, danced together.
Ask my wife, I LOVE BALD EAGLES! I used to get on my brothers jet ski and go on Lake Washington by myself to go through the lake and find bald eagles on the treetops. I’ve only seen a couple in the last 10 years in the city. The day of the memorial brought tears to many who noticed above. Right before the raising of the totem pole, HIGH above, four bald eagles flew right above us. I looked to the elder I was standing next to me, he said, “The ancestors are truly with us today friend. John would be happy that his life has brought this to come about. It erases all the lies that we have been told. We are not done, but we are protected.”
I used these folks below for their insights onto the JTW murder and Memorial.
Seattle Times: Lynda V. Mapes, Amy Martinez
Seattle PI: Casey Mcnerthney
SU Spectator: Bianca Sewake
Blackfeet Nation: Gyasi Ross
Here are some more shots from the totem procession that I have posted on other networks. Hope ya’ll dig the shots and post. RIP JTW. Hit me up on Instagram/ EyeEm/ Streamzoo/ Twitter at @bradpuet or on Google + at BP Juxt or on email at [email protected]. Peace.
by Brad Puet | Feb 27, 2012 | Chops with BP, Featured Articles
B: BP M: Michael
B: Tell us who is Michael Bartos and @King_Fisher?
M: My name is Michael Bartos and living in Berlin, in my eyes the most thrilling, inspiring, charming, fast changing and sometimes annoying city in Germany. What I like most here are the regional distinctions of the city districts. “Charlottenburg” is much different to “Prenzlauer Berg” and “Grunewald” is not comparable to “Mitte” – in almost all means: architecture, people, even restaurants. But they all have some things in common: the city is green. There are trees and parks all over. If you arrive by plane and your destination airport is TXL (hurry up, it will be closed in summer this year), you’ll see its beauty.
Edit process: I don’t remember.
This is nothing special, I took it in the stairway of my house, so I see it every day. 🙂
But somehow I like it.
In real life I am a web-developer and -consultant. I create or extend e-commerce systems like online shops and a couple of other projects, for example InstaChallenge, but this could be a different topic. 🙂
I was not that much into photography before I entered Instagram in November 2010. I just had a small digital camera and until now I don’t own a DSLR. I’m fascinated by lo-fi photography. It is the moment, that counts, the perspective, the angle, the idea or the situation, the colors – if any, sometimes the editing, but not (generally) the sharpness, the megapixels or the clarity. And I like everything that’s new to me – especially old things, abandoned places, dark scenes, spectacular locations and I love to explore and to experiment. I love reduction, but I’m not very good in it.
B: Sounds like the city is truly beautiful. Can you go into further detail of the different districts. Their characters, the fasion, the people who live in those neighborhoods.
M: Let me try to describe the districts I lived in. I spent my childhood in the southern part of Berlin/Tempelhof, a very down-to-earthy area called “Marienfelde”. Each time I get back there I’m suprised how different it is compared to the district I live now. It appears as if everything is much slower, everyone is at least ten years older, roads are cleaner and the air is fresher than in “Prenzlauer Berg”. After this I used to live even more south. This subdistrict of “Neukölln” is called “Rudow” and even slower than “Marienfelde”. It was more a suburb, of course not a real suburb, because we had the Wall at this time and I lived only a couple of meters from it. After this real quiet time I moved to “Kreuzberg” to get in touch with civilazation again. After overcoming the cultural shock I enjoyed the streetlife of this district, all the bars and restaurants (they only had italian and chinese cuisine in Rudow). Kreuzberg is multi-cultural, young and open-minded (“Rudow” is exactly the opposite). I love to shoot in Kreuzberg. It has lots of interesting places. After a couple of years I moved to “Charlottenburg” which is a very bohemian district, well known for its theatres, the Kurfürstendamm, the Zoo, the Charlottenburg Palace with its park (great photo spot) and the Europa-Center. I lived close to the Savignyplatz which was and partly still is a great place for bar hopping and street cafes. Charlottenburg is also kind of a business district with lots of hotels and shops. It was the city center before the reunification and now plays only in the second line after “Mitte”. In some way you can see this when watching carefully. After Charlottenburg I moved to my current destination. It felt it is time to checkout a district that belonged to former East-Berlin: “Prenzlauer Berg”. There are still some differences to the western part: street lamps have yellow light here and there are trams on the street, to name only two. Prenzlauer Berg has a very young population, but it is also threatened by gentrification. I live near Schönhauser Allee which is a very busy street with a subway line as an elevated train. You’ll find many pictures of the street in my stream. (I would also suggest my friend @jn who lives in the neigborhood and posts a photo around the subway station “Eberswalder Straße” almost every day.) I guess, I’ll stay here for some more years… 🙂
Taken in June 2011, Hipstamatic Lens: John-S, Film: Claunch 72,
applied “Hefe” filter when posting to Instagram
Oranienstraße is the heart of Kreuzberg/SO36. The flair of this region is very distinctive. There is so much life and creativity in this street. And it is an area of massive cultural interchange. Very inspiring!
B: The beauty of your work lies in the character of the shot/s. What is it that catches your eye specifically before you shoot something? Do you have a specific area/ district that you get totally lost in?
M: A special area? No. As I told you, I’m mostly attracted by everthing new, but of course there are areas where I can find new views every time. One is the “Mauerpark” with its flea market, the “Gleimtunnel” and the area around. I take everyone there who is new to Berlin! When looking for architectural motifs the “Postdamer Platz” is one of my favorites.
Lots of editing, but I don’t remember them exactly. I think it was taken with “Camera+”, then applied its “Clarity” filter, some alignment and corrections with “Filterstorm”, esp. color reduction.
Did I mention my weakness for bridges? The “Bösebrücke” is one reason for that. There is only one railway track for both directions of the Tram and the lanes are quite narrow for two cars on both ways. But most exciting is the history of this bridge: On November 9th, 1989 it was the first checkpoint that opened the way from East to West Berlin when the wall fell. Always a great spot for photoshootings!
B: Who are you’re influences in art? in mobile photography?
M: I really never thought about that. I visited lots of exhibitions and I was mostly impressed by Helmut Newton, but hey, he was an absolute professional. It would be inappropriate to talk of influences.
And there is another problem: I always forget names. There are many artists I admire, but I forgot their names… 🙁
Taken in September 2011, Hipstamatic Lens: John-S, Film: Ina’s 1969,
no further editing
This was taken in Berlin-Kreuzberg, near the former airport Tempelhof. Because I like traveling and urban scenes I have a strong relation to this snapshot. By the way, i took this on a photowalk with @thomas_k, @goldie77 and @chantree last summer.
B: Where in the world would you like to shoot based on the mobile photos that you’ve seen on the various platforms? and why?
M: That’s easy! I love beaches – preferred in equatorial locations. One reason for this is the light. The sun climbs to the azimuth, the weather is much better and life seems to be happier. 🙂
I have been to the caribbean (Jamaica, Yucatan, Key West) and to asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and others) – but I was not into photography at these times. So I should revisit some of these places. Same applies to many cities and regions in the US. I visited a lot of cities in the United States, but without a camera – or without concern. (Just discovered this passion when traveling to Vienna last year and to Norway this year.)
B: Tell the readers a bit more about InstaChallenge. What is the concept behind it? What is your mission and what is the vision here on out for InstaChallenge?
M: As I said, this could be a different story. In short: Last year I wanted to start a challenge, because I have seen this from others. The idea was to produce a photobook from the results. Among the problems that had to be solved was a) how do I manage a jury of 4 or 5 people, b) how do I keep track of submissions and each judges votes, c) how do I present the results and d) how do I get all the images? And because I am a web developer I created I website for this.
Please have a look at www.InstaChallenge.com, if you like! Currently there is a #ic_songpic challenge hosted by @instantvuka running until March, 11th. It is about visualization of songs and you can win prizes! 🙂 — Maybe you’ll host a challenge for JUXT?
Taken in June 2011, Hipstamatic Lens: John-S, Film: Claunch 72,
no further editing
I love bridges, intense contrast and lines. The trainstation “Gesundbrunnen” has lots of them.
B: I just recently found out how much I like to shoot abandoned places. I even want to go find Bigfoot for goodness sake. Tell us more about why you like old things. Can you tell us a story of when you shot an abandoned place and did you find out about the history of the place?
M: Abandoned places have always been fascinating to me. From ghost towns in the wild west to Tschernobyl. In Berlin we have lots of places with an interesting history. The olympic village from 1936, many bunkers from WW2, industrial areas, hospitals, listening stations (like Teufelsberg – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teufelsberg) and many more. Even the former city airport Tempelhof can be seen as an abandoned place now – and it has lots of interesting spots.
It is like a journey through time.
B: I love you’re quote, “It is the moment that counts, the perspective, the angle, the idea or the situration.” Tell us more about your fascination with lo-fi photography. What is it about “big” cameras that may take this away?
M: In some way there is a connection between my love for abandoned places and lo-fi photography. By the time of those places, photography was not that much developed and the look of historical pictures sometimes are quite similar to modern grunge edits; I guess that’s why they created those apps. 🙂
But I would like to repeat that: Especially Mobile Photography is about the moment. And this moment might be gone if you have to select the object lens and install your tripot first. In addition to this I’m sometimes distracted by details of high resolution images. This won’t happen with lo-fi photos. The Instagram resolution of 612×612 is perfect to focus on the overall picture.
Taken in June 2011, Hipstamatic Lens: John-S, Film: Claunch 72,
no further editing
On the way from “S-Bahn” to “U-Bahn” in Berlin-Wedding. There are some elements that represent the multi-cultural way of life in this district.
B: What do you see is the future for mobile photography?
M: In general I think technology will develop further – as seen in the past. Small cameras with better and better lenses, faster processing and more intelligent options will influence the way people use photography in their daily life. Sharing platforms and community functions will continue to get integrated in more and more sophisticated services. And small mobile devices will play a growing role in this game.
B: What do you see is the future for you in mobile photography?
M: Not easy to see. I’ll keep experimenting. Maybe, some day, I’ll find “my” style. Hopefully.
Juxt thanks you for your work and your art.
To contact Michael:
IG: @king_fisher
Twitter: @King_Fisher
Stream: http://king-fisher.me/
Business Blog: bartos-projects
Private Blog: bartos.de
and of course: InstaChallenge.com
by Brad Puet | Feb 20, 2012 | Chops with BP, Featured Articles
BP’s Introduction
I used to run a youth poetry/literary arts non-profit in Seattle. We used to do slam competitions locally, regionally, and nationally. I’ve been able to get the team to the top 3 in the nation 3 of the 6 years (I was with the organization) we went to compete. The thing about slam poetry is it’s based on a point system. BUT it’s not the point system that makes a great poet. The point system and judging is the gimmick. It’s the pull of the mainstream crowd to be able to hear poetry performed on stage that isn’t typical to the readings in local coffee houses. It’s performance poetry. Message still the same. Very powerful. It’s just really performed and polished, to get points. Well, when you hear a poet spit (recite) on the mic their heart and soul and recieve a low score, the crowd goes wild chanting, “THE POINT IS NOT THE POINT, THE POINT IS THE POETRY.” I liken that a bit to the whole idea of followership and popularity and now, the ridding of ghost or zombie followers.
We’ve all seen it on IG. I have poked around and asked a few Juxters to ask around and to get some quotes for this article. The majority of folks agree that it has helped them feel good about their feed, their IG experience, and at the very least, help them manage their IG feeds. There are those who are still wondering if it truly is something that is worth it. Those in the minority don’t disagree with the fact that IG has turned into a land of monster egos, popularity seekers, Justin Beiber lovers, tasteless self portraits, and stolen pictures. I think they are just wondering if it is possible to really reverse where Instagram is headed (as far as the “old school” folks are concerned).
So before I lead into this article, let me tell you, THE POINT IS NOT THE POPULARITY, THE POINT IS THE COMMUNITY AND THE ART! or better yet, Michael says, “IG is about people, not about numbers.”
B: BP M: Michael
B: Tell us about yourself, where you’re from; what go you into mobile photography/ art.
M: I’m a forty-something living in Sydney, Australia. Been here all my life. I’ve always enjoyed photography, but for most of my life I’ve used it to retain a memory rather than as a medium for art. The mobile side of it started from incredibly mundane beginnings. I remember waiting in a park, with my only recently aquired iphone suddenly realising that this device I had in my hand could capture the beautiful moment. From memory it was a terrible shot that I deleted almost instantly, but it set me on the path.
B: What do you do? What’s you’re daily grind?
M: I’m a programmer in a small, old school, software house. I do a very small amount of web work there, but most of my grind is split between back end server applications and some comms work for handheld devices. I think I’ve been a programmer from the day I touched my first computer – an Apple II back in the 80’s.
There was an ill fated attempt to go into the world of civil engineering, but fortunately I managed to derail myself from that plan and fall into a couple of nice programming jobs that set me right.
B: When did you start getting into Instagram and can you describe the journey for you thus far?
M: I picked up Instagram quite early – October 2010. At the time I was trying various services to find a place for photography and I enjoyed the simplicity and directness of it. I was never really a social network sort of a guy, so I didn’t have a raft of friends to bring with me. I think for my first couple of hundred shots I had no followers at all.
While I’ve always enjoyed ‘taking pictures’, I’ve never thought of myself as a photographer. While I still don’t consider my work ‘good’ in any objective sense, I know I’ve improved over time. Almost all of the photography knowledge I have, I’ve learnt through Instagram. @homework was a big help early on, as were all the lessons I gathered from the people I followed.
B: Tell us about the IG Exocist. What gave you the idea?
M: It was somewhat backwards. I didn’t see the problem and then look for a solution, but rather I saw a solution (the Instagram APIs) and went looking for something to do. A while ago I started collecting stats on my own account, just to play with the interface. At about the same time statigr.am became popular and did most of what I wanted, and far more attractively, so I never thought of progressing it any further.
I collected stats on all the people I was following and who were following me and originally was just using those stats to assist in managing the people I follow, but ultimately I found managing those by hand more than adequate. The problem of ghost followers was in the back of my mind but not something I felt too strongly about, but looking at the data I was surprised to see just how many users there were that seemed to be doing nothing.
So I somewhat fell into it rather than rushing in as a crusader against the ghosts, but once I’d culled my own account and spread the word a little the exorcism concept took off far more than I had expected. For the first few people there was no web page interface, I had to run the scripts semi-manually, but it quickly become obvious that I had to make a service.
B: It has been well received by a lot of IGers. Initially when you started out it was mostly for friends and wasn’t really public. The service is a great idea and is working to help those who really want to have more of a meaningful experience on IG. What do you foresee happening with the Exorcist in the future?
M: I’m incredibly thrilled with how well it has been recieved. Not only are there huge numbers of people using the service, but I get many personal messages of thanks which really make the effort worthwhile. I’m also very grateful for the donations I’ve received – I was happy to cover the costs of running this for a while if needed, but the donations will mean I can continue to run igexorcist without it costing me anything other than sleep.
While there is a fair amount of buzz about it right now, I think it will calm down significantly. People will continue to use regularly, but the excitment of the last few days will probably go away. While there are many IGers highly enthusiastic about it, I think it’s still a fairly niche product, and as you don’t need to cull the ghosts too often (for most of us, this is removing a year or more of ghosts) the return visits won’t be huge.
I do plan to add features in the future. Obviously it needs some work artistically, but also changes such as the ability to ‘whitelist’ users, or the ability to manage those you follow as well as the ghosts. But all of that is well down the path. I’ve also been just starting to look into iOS development and this might be a project that I could develop for use on the iphone directly without the need for a server – but that’s only a seedling of an idea at this point.
B: In an email you provided me with pros and cons for using this service. Can you reiterate those thoughts again?
M: The pros and cons depend heavily on what your goals are in IG. For some the number of followers is an important number, and for those people I can’t say that there is a single positive reason to cull. A ghost user is a user that doesn’t interact with you, and therefore you could argue that, by definition, they don’t affect you, but there are a number of reasons that people may want to remove them.
Finding new people to follow. One of the ways to find new people to follow is to look in your own back yard. The people following you often have many treasures to offer (chances are there are similar tastes in some cases, if they’re following you). Trimming down the number of followers lets you sort the wheat from the chaff.
Truer sense of worth. While it was nice to pretend that my original number of followers were enjoying my work, I certainly know I was lying to myself (or that Instagram was lying to me). Getting rid of the dead wood gives a better idea as to who is actually looking at and enjoying your work. There’s something comforting about knowing the number of followers you have may be an indication of the number of people actually looking.
Don’t like them. These social networks are analogous to our real world interactions. There’s something slightly creepy about someone inserting themselves into your social circle but then ignoring you. Maybe it’s like breaking a social contract. When you interact with people it’s supposed to be give and take. These ghosts are taking but not bringing anything.
Fame is not always a good thing. I find the larger the number of followers someone has, the less likely I am to try to interact with them. If I turn that around, I figure people are more likely to want to interact with me if I don’t have a huge following (not that that’s likely). So by cutting down the ghosts, you not only improve the quality of your existing followers, but hopefully improve the quality of new ones.
B: I know for myself, I have many friends and family members who are using the service who do not have IG etiquette and surpisingly enough engage with me outside of IG on my own work. This is what’s held me back in using the Exorcist. I still also have many questions regarding it. I know a lot of folks have loved the fact that it has deleted many ghost followers on their feed. Why do you attribute this emotion of happiness, sense of lifted burden amongst so many IGers?
M: There are two main types of ghost, I find. The first are the users who joined IG and used it for a while but have now moved on. The second is the mass followers who follow others in the hope they will be followed back. I don’t think the removal of the first group brings any joy, but the second is where the happiness and lifted burden comes in.
I think the broken social contract I mentioned earlier is the most likely reason for this strong emotional response. To me, and I assume to the users using IGExorcist, a real follower is something important. I want to please my followers and I put effort into doing so, not in a ‘selling myself out’ sort of a way, but in a ‘doing the best I can’ way. But to the mass follower ghost, I’m just a number. That person is asking something from me with so little care for me that they barely know they are doing it. I know that sounds terribly dramatic and it’s not like I lie at home at nights weeping, but the hundreds or thousands of little broken promises add up.
At least that’s my armchair psychiatry.
As to the connection with people outside of IG, the small number who view me within IG and are important, I follow to keep in touch with, and to the larger community of people like that, I always push my work out to both flickr and facebook, where I find those sorts of people are more at home. But I would never say this process is for everyone.
B: My biggest worry is that it’ll delete many ghosts from my followers but then it also may attribute to changing the algorithm of getting on popular, THUS leading to even more ghost followers. Recently I think the buzz was that IG had changed their pop algorithm, and it lessened the pressure of my own stuff getting to popular. I was able to get some meaningful dialogue with folks. What do you think about this? Do you think that there is a way to combat this?
M: Whether or not this changes the likelihood of getting on the popular page certainly wasn’t part of my thinking at any point. It does seem likely that the number of followers would factor in to the likelihood of popular, but my gut feeling on how some of the data Instagram has makes me think that having been a follower in the past may also count. It’s all just speculation. I’ve had no anecdotal evidence that it has increased anyones chances of popular.
But I think if users are culling to try to get popular they have missed the point. As you say, the primary take away from achieving popular is a minor influx of new followers who are most likely to become ghosts.
B: EyeEm is another great social photo app sharing program. They have had many very artistic shots make pop as it seems that it isn’t based on “likes and follows” algorithms. What would be your suggestion to IG on a better “popular” algorithm?
M: Ultimately the fact that “popular” and “good” are not synonyms is going to be the downfall of any global popular page. People who want to be popular are going to game the system, whether intentionally or just by trained behaviour (I do X, I get popular, so I’ll keep doing X). The only reason I would (theoretically) go to the popular page now is for discovery of new people to follow, so perhaps what would work is a personalised popular page built similarly to the Following News feed, with just photos that are popular amoungst those only a couple of degrees of separation from you.
But there are smarter minds than mine working on the problem, I’m sure. A top notch popular page is a big draw card to these sorts of networks.
B: Lastly for the service, I love the fact that you’ve created a service that is community related. What other things can we see come from @mykel in the future?
M: I’ve no specific plans at the moment, other than improving the site. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for itches that I can scratch – I’m big on automating tasks (my inherent laziness, I guess) so anywhere larger tasks can be simplified is likely to be where I land. But often it’s the challenge of something different that leads me to these projects.
The last public project before this was more than 10 years ago in a completely different field (visualizers for a now defunct music player), so who knows what will be next. Hopefully a little less of a gap.
B: Tell us about Michael as the mobile photographer. What are your favorite styles of mobile photography? Who are your favorite IGers and why?
M: As mentioned before, I *try* not to limit myself to a favourite style, but time after time I find myself drawn back to moody black and whites and strong greens – graveyards and park benches. I regularly develop a almost debilitating Hipstamatic habit that I have to cure (I think it’s about time again now). I love playing with light in my photography, and because know I have such a long way to go, look forward to that journey.
Favourite IGers is a slippery slope. If I start listing them off I’m going to offend someone when I stop. My favourites are only ever partly to do with the photography – it’s the people behind that I admire. I happen to be fortunate that the beautiful people also happen to be able to take beautiful shots. But rather than completely dodge the question, I’ll offer up @annacox as a favourite. Needless to say her photos are spectacular, but I learnt so much about how to act, how to be a photographer and to have confidence in my work from her.
Bench: Benches are a bit of a thing (thanks to my friend @tephi), and while I visited this one regularly, on this particular overcast day I found it particularly serene. Nothing but a little clarity for the edit.
Muse: Playing with composition. Clarity, maybe twice, and punched up the colour.
Portrait: I love this photo of my neice. Heavily edited. Big Lens for DOF and some serious use of Noir.
Sparkler: My daugher last New Years Eve. Originally taken with Hipstamatic. Big Lens’ed and Photoforge 2 for crop and levels.
TeensyTinyFlower: One of quite a large series of macro flower shots I’ve done with the PhotoJoJo macro lens. This one Hipstamatic then cropped/coloured/leveled in Photoforge 2.
B: Tell us more about your own feed and the messages you would like to come through on your feed.
M: I’m sure I have a photographic voice, but I don’t like to pin myself down. Certainly I’ll trend towards a style in my feed from time to time, but I like to look at what I’m posting and try to push myself out of that comfort zone whenever I can. I don’t think I’ve been doing such a great job of that of late – there’s an element of consistancy creeping in that I’m going to have to do something about shortly.
First and foremost, however, it’s about having fun. I certainly don’t take my photos seriously at all, and I don’t want anyone else to.
B: What inspires you?
M: Some days it seems like everything, and others almost nothing. Always my family. I don’t think I can pin it on anything – sometimes things just pop up, often completely unexpectedly, and give me direction. What a non-answer that is.
Juxt thanks you for your work and your art.
To run the IG Exorcist go to www.igexorcist.com.
Contact Michael at [email protected] or on Instagram: @mykel
Here are some quotes from users who have tried and their experience with removing ghost followers and a couple folks who don’t have plans to use IG Exorcist:
Because creativity isn’t fueled by numbers. It’s influenced by an interactive, supportive community which acts as a source of inspiration and who encourages you to grow by allowing you the opportunity to experiment and scribble outside the lines
IGexorcist… Narcissistic attention whores need not apply. This site will destroy the illusion of you and your great following. You’ll find in fact, that you’re not that “popular” after all. I thank God that Mykel created this site. IG was meant for networking and relationship building; not the bloated, selfish, narcissistic crap that it has become. So take a step in the right direction and get rid of those people following you, that don’t really follow you at all.
IG can be viewed a few different ways. One view is that IG is rich and creative and we use each other to learn and spring board our own creativity. It’s like a 24 hour gallery show and everyone is invited. On the other hand, it’s viewed as a tumblr or other social networking sites: Repost, repin, retweet. It’s all the same. The difference between the two is artistic integrity. Some of us strive to create and explore our world through a lens, others are content copying the images they see around them.
I did it because I’ve put a lot of work building the relationships I have on IG. So yes I’m against people follow a massive amount of people hoping to get a follow back instead of just getting involved with the community. Bottom line is I don’t want anyone following me that doesnt want to build and get involved with the community I’ve come to love. Period.
The total number of followers I have does not affect the way I use Instagram and it doesn’t matter to me if people follow me but don’t interact. I feel that if I used this program and got rid of my followers who don’t interact, they would just come back in the long run so it’s a bit of a vicious circle. I won’t use it but do find the whole process interesting.
If these ghost followers bother you, I’m all for going though with the culling process. It does makes it simpler. If they don’t, keep them. That’s it. I have decided to wait until a more selective way to eliminate some of them from my list after I went though the list and saw some people there that had been kind to me in the beginning of my IG life. Some people are on a break or have something going on on their lives that impede them from being present. Others prefer to just see pictures and not interact, etc…It’s your call. I’m very active on IG. I check every single person that starts to follow me now. If I see a red flag, like they follow too many people or any other suspicion that they may be interested only on numbers, I click the block button and then unblock them after. This way you are removed from their list of FOLLOWING. Me, I follow without “following” a lot of people. I’m present and give encouragement. I’m more interested on the exchange. And after a while if I like their images and I see they are present enough in my feed, I may follow them. It’s about a PERSONAL choice. All choices are valid and only you can determine what’s best for you.
BP Update
So it took me about a week and a half until I finally ghost rode my IG feed. At first i had some hesitancy as stated above. I went as far as even asked some of my trusted IG homies. I exorcised almost 3000 ghosts and found that it was burden lifting. The issue now is do I gatekeep to make sure it doesn’t happen again and do I have the time?!? Michael definitely has given a space for folks to gain control of their feed again and in essence taken control of their artistic expression. I understand it to be about maintenance. Will I be able to maintain it? I don’t necessarily know.
As I ready this for publishing, I’m running it again. I personally have gotten a lot of users with the “follow_everyone” or “shout_out” or “popular_maker”. it’s really disconcerning what has happened. I wonder if IG HQ will address these issues as I foresee a lot of folks wanting to jump ship. It would be unfortunate if this happens.
This is the most commendable thing I’ve seen so far on IG. Sure you have the features a day, the interviews a day, the shots for a day, the shots and groups to make things popular…but this makes it a bit easier to swallow. Instead of trying to control the bull riding and shooting for more time on the clock, Michael has let mobile artists on Instagram feed the bull, groom the bull, and ultimately become better friends. OOOOH you know I had to throw in something like that. This article can’t have me writing it without having a BP analogy that makes no sense. =)
With that, try it out if you’re interested in ridding of dead weight on your followings. Donate to Michael and the program and services he’s giving us. Exorcise those demons. Ghost ride the whip. Holla at ya boy, Let Michael know he’s done a good thing for folks. AND even more importantly and it’s the moral of the story for us – HAVE FUN, LIKE/ COMMENT – ENGAGE! PARTICIPATE! ain’t that really why we are to this point on IG.
**Big thanks to those who provided quotes and especially to Anna Cox for helping in looking through this article. Michael you’re an inspiration. Thank you.
