Fringe Festival 2026 Visual Arts Exhibit Announcement
My 4th photography exhibit, Come on Into My Kitchen, will be at Union Station from October 1st to 14th in the main hall, across from Harvey's
Address: 30 W Pershing Rd, Kansas City, MO 64108
Show Hours: 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.
Artist Statement: Come On Into My Kitchen
It was a dark day for photographers the day that Adam Mosseri, Instagram head, announced that the future of Instagram would be video. If it felt like a betrayal, that’s because it was.
Instagram was a platform built by photographers for photographers, as well as for anyone who found value in the power of the static image.
With a world changing faster and faster, Instagram was a refuge to those seeking a respite from the increasingly frenetic pace of other social media apps such as Tik Tok. It was a place that forced you to slow down and think about an image.
Another key component to Instagram’s success was in its implementation—as a phone app. With the transition of much of the internet to mobile devices, it was forward-looking in that regard.
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In the aftermath of the announcement, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, soon transitioned its algorithm to prioritize video over photography. As a result, many photographers witnessed a massive decline in post views, with many seeing a drop of 90% or more in post likes, as well as a significant drop in the number of comments on their work.
The response from photographers since the change has been overwhelmingly negative, with many significantly reducing their output, or quitting the platform entirely. Some have continued on though, continuing to struggle in the new reality of a system where an algorithm has decided their work as a photographer means less than someone making a video. Meta’s message was clear: Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app.
To say that the situation has been deeply troubling is a profound understatement. Photographers haven’t taken it lying down though, with the emergence of sites such as Grid (https://grid.photo).
Grid’s philosophy is as follows, “grid.photo is a place where the photograph itself is the only thing that matters. No follower counts on the grid, no algorithmic feeds, no pay-to-promote. A great image by an unknown photographer stands exactly the same chance as one by a veteran with ten thousand fans. The "one upload per day" rule is intentional. It forces a decision: which frame from today is truly my best? That constraint is what makes the grid worth scrolling. Supporters can optionally upload as a Set — grouping 2–5 images from the same shoot — but the cover photo is always the one that competes in the grid. The rest are bonus context; the ranking is still decided by a single image.”
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This show, Come on Into My Kitchen, was born out of the above context. These images are a collection of many of my favorite moments from over the years, as a street, events, and macro photographer. Each one has relevance to me, and perhaps you can find some meaning in them too. Ultimately though, you are the one who decides how important these images are—not an algorithm in service of another Libertarian billionaire technologist’s dream.
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No one hangs a video on their wall. When we look at the walls in our homes, what we see are images, and it’s these images that tell us what’s important to us and ultimately who we are. However, you don’t need to be a photographer to understand this concept—you just need to be a person. Keep capturing your moments.
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