"Instagram photographers" stewing in their own juice.

Interestingly, instead of the expected aggressive or defensive reaction, these thoughts got a lot of positive responses precisely from "Instagram photographers", which gives hope – or I have understood everything wrong.

On the one hand, everything written here is based on my regular personal experience of working with photographers. On the other, it is more than 15 years of teaching photography.

1. Instagram is the starting point for photographers. The main thing is not to get stuck there.

Instagram is the place where photographers arrive first. A place with a great many beginners and people who got stuck at this stage.

Mature photographers either simply publish their work or show how they spend their free time. Mature clients do not come from Instagram. They are not inspired by Instagram or Pinterest either. This childish game of views and likes is neither needed nor interesting to them.

Besides, everyone has officially accepted that Instagram is not a place for complex and thoughtful content. So people who make complex things either leave Instagram or give it far less attention than beginners do.

Fashion brands have adapted to this "simplicity" too, simplifying their content so as not to scare off "newcomers".

As a result, Instagram has very little mature, high-quality material and a great many "beginners" among "beginners", who inspire each other and make "useful content" for other newcomers like themselves.

The most dangerous thing is that the "beginner" level becomes the norm and is encouraged. Everyone is comfortable there, which means there is no motivation to grow further.