Color outside the lines.

You weren’t made for the grid, you were made to break it.

Not everyone will appreciate your art. That’s okay.

Two lessons from art school have stayed with me: first, the historical context of a photograph always matters. And second, not everyone will appreciate your art, and that’s okay.

In today’s world, where social media often shapes who gets gallery shows or makes money from their work, the pressure to perform for an algorithm is real. Follower counts, subscriber numbers, and the number of likes a post receives can start to feel like the only metrics that matter. We’ve all been there: uploading something we care about, only to watch it disappear into a feed driven by trends rather than originality.

However, your worth as a photographer, writer, musician, educator, or individual is not defined by hashtags (#) or the provocative nature of your content. Your work deserves to be seen. You deserve to be seen. I like to think that my work will eventually be discovered. Does that make me a hopeless optimist? Sure. But, I’d rather have hope than fear of the “what if”.

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
— Dorothea Lange

Take your camera with you on walks and try to capture photographs of the mundane. Look at it from a different perspective, and you’ll be surprised at how pushing yourself out of your comfort zone compounds your progress.

Even in a dystopian world, create the photographs that move you. Let your vision cut through the noise and challenge the boundaries others try to impose. When your work is rooted in truth, it will resonate, and that light will carry farther than you think.

All photographs are copyrighted by ©Adriano Kalin.