In October 2010, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram. With its filters and simple interface, it changed how people shared photos and opened up mobile photography to everyone. It’s been a different story lately.

In the early days, the chronological feed and the filters turned casual snapshots into something people were proud to share, and a real photography community grew up around it. That changed when the algorithm did. Instagram now prioritises whatever gets the most likes, comments and shares, which rewards trends and viral content over anything more considered. Photos increasingly lose out to Reels and short-form video, so photographers get buried regardless of the quality of the work.

Then there’s the influencer problem. Fame on Instagram now has more to do with follower counts than with talent, and that culture of self-promotion and brand deals pushes genuine artistic work further down the feed. It also feeds a fairly unhealthy cycle of comparison for anyone still trying to make honest work.

None of this means photographers are out of options. VERO runs a chronological, ad-free feed built with visual artists in mind. 500px is still a proper home for photography, contests included. Glass is a newer app built specifically around long-form visual storytelling. Ello has always positioned itself as artist-first, without the algorithm or the ads.

Instagram isn’t really a photography platform any more. It’s a video and influencer platform that photography happens to live on. If you want your work seen for what it is rather than how it performs, it might be worth spending more time on one of the alternatives instead.