I have honestly been wanting to explain my stance on the topic a bit more for quite a while.

It’s complex, and one of the topics I have gotten the most questions about from other creatives, while my clients, on the other hand, appreciate not even having to ask and bind specific terms in a contract for their privacy.

It’s not a secret that with social media, for all creatives, businesses of any size, and all of us, have come great opportunities of free advertisement and promotion of self. Share an image of a session you took, always with the hopes of finding the right audience and a potential new client.

It’s a simple concept at first glance. A photographer gets hired, the session is completed, the images edited, the gallery shared. The photographer gets the right to share images on social media. It’s a done deal; it’s a wonderful way for clients to have their images shared, and it is a wonderful way for other creatives to find inspiration from the way things are posed, edited, and to new locations. I am no exception in looking for inspiration by looking at other photographers work. The downside, though, is that a client paid a photographer to take the images. They did, in a way, also pay the photographer to use the images for advertisement, if you are really thinking about it.

It’s a complex subject. From copyright laws to the style of photography, involved family and family dynamics beyond what I, as a photographer, can know.

Personally, I have never hired a photographer who didn’t offer the option of keeping the images of me and my family offline. Based on my personal views, I have decided not to even bother sharing my clients images on social media. However, that doesn’t mean the images I have taken don’t get shared on the socials. It’s just not by me, and I would like to take a minute for my reasoning.

Many of my works are taken of families. While I have the consent given by the adults, I would never have the consent of images of children to share on social media. Children often, especially preteens/teens, don’t quite understand the consequences of images on the internet. It’s not for me to share the images of you and your children. While I am proud of my work and honored you have invited me to spend part of your day, and while I am honored to have met you and your adorable small humans, it’s my way of showing respect for your privacy by not sharing your images.

Beyond privacy, my reasoning not to share anything is the current training of AI via social media.

It’s not just a simple click and opt-out, so images won’t be used to train AI to become better at creating realistic images of humans in personal situations. Because it isn’t a simple opt-out, I decided your images won’t be part of it from my end.

I do believe AI has advantages and can be used for the greater good of humanity and the planet; however, I do not think it should be used to create AI accounts and AI managers to interact with people on social media. I don’t wish to add your images to the pool for training algorithmic learning to become better at creating whatever it is asked of to create. You are unique in every way, and that should be celebrated, not copied by algorithmic learning to create something that isn’t real.

However, of course, that is just my opinion. We all have different views and opinions. While I won’t share images of you on social media, and with that I may miss out on marketing opportunities, I am fine with that. Your privacy, and that of your family, matters to me.

Images taken by me are yours to use however you see fit. Be it shared on social media or not, printed to hang on your walls, or whether you create a photo book to keep and leaf through memories every so often. I very much encourage you on the latter two. Print your images. You are more likely to get joy out of them more often when seeing them more easily vs. looking through files on your screen. Your images shouldn’t just be data sitting somewhere but should be looked at often. They were created to cherish and revisit your special moments.

Now I know I am not too popular with my way of doing things in a time and age where constantly sharing brings new opportunities, and yet I am happy I have never wished to fit in and be popular.

In the end, it’s never about me or showing off my work, but it has always been about you and what we can create together. 

Thank you for reading along today. Catch you soon.