On my new photo journal website
I’d like to write about why I created my new photo journal website.
I have been wanting a site where I can post lots of photos at once for quite some time now. I have been enjoying these longer, chronological posts by other photographers, and it’s become my favourite way of consuming images. For me, it’s way more enjoyable to really take my time and look at a single person’s photographs, than consuming single images of several different photographers – which is usually the default on social media. It’s more like sitting down with a photography book of a single artist.
Currently I’m very much into personal and documentary photography, and I think longer posts lend themselves better to this style.
Plus, I enjoy creating these posts with photos covering a longer time span much more.
I also wanted to have full control over my photos, my site and the way I’d like to present and archive them. I wanted something Indie. And hosting your own site is the only way to do so.
Now I can have everything the way I want: no limit on the number of images, and simply a long page where you can scroll through full-size pictures – chronologically and without the need to click or tap anything. I can also easily (batch-)download all the images and posts, since it’s simply an FTP download of a static website.
It’s interesting how I more and more go back to hosting my own sites again and also code lots of it myself. That’s how I started out in the late 90s. But I think it’s the only way I can control the things I share on the web long-term. It feels like my photos found a real “home” again. A homepage for my photos. This feels very right to me.
