I am an ex magazine photographer and writer in Vancouver. There are a few designers (friends of mine) that somehow manage to find work. Like fashion photographers that never ever liked other fashion photographers’ work these designers think most web pages are terrible. Recently a contemporary (photographer more into what used to be ad photography) placed his re-designen web page in Facebook and asked people to comment and give advice. I could not nor did I have the heart to tell him that a photographer’s web page has to have arresting photographs. None really were. So content is important.

In 2006 I finally hired a design firm (mad up of tired lawyers who decided to switch to web design) to build my web page. I still think is it is a good one but I can safely say that magazine photography as we knew it is dead and nobody is going to hire me to fly to Paris (as they once did) to take photographs or write a story. I have a Blogger blog (also designed by the lawyers) that is ancillary to my web page. But I have noticed in the last three years that if I do not place my latest (and daily) blog as a link in Twitter and in Facebook people think I have not written my blog. Entry into the blog (and therefore into the web page) is via social media. I have no idea on how many people still rely on RSS feeds (my blog has one). I have also noticed that if I duplicate (and I do this a lot) my daily blog as a Medium story the readership is much better by noticeable quantities. Also if every few weeks you repost your Medium stories into Twitter (and eliminate that horrible “I have just…”) and Facebook readers will read the stories that may have had low readership in the past.

So in a nutshell you may be absolutely right. It seems these days that entry into anything is through social media.

Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

Vancouver, BC