#nofilter
#nofilter has been around a while, of course, but lately, I've noticed some interesting variants I wanted to comment on. They're hashtags like #neverfilter or #ofcoursetheresnofilter or #lifedoesntneedafilter. I'm interested by the motivations of the hashtaggers. Filtering has become something anyone can do with ease and without much know-how: just open up Instagram and take your pic(k). To declare that you #neverfilter, in contrast, is to assert that your imagery comes from a place of presumable authenticity, grounded in your presumably real expertise at composing an attractive shot without any digital assistance. It's like an artistic farm-to-table movement, only it's life-to-audience, cutting out the Instagram middleman. A tag like #lifedoesntneedafilter, meanwhile, implies authenticity not only in your compositional talent, but your talent in living fully. It's no coincidence that photos so tagged are typically of joyous moments or beautiful scenery. This tag says you are living so vibrantly that even your photos in the raw cannot help but reflect that fact. It's a statement of status as much as of artistic merit. But if you tag your photos this way, you are in essence responding the implication that filtering is you could easily do, or have done before. It's only young, active, relentlessly positive urban hipster types I've mainly seen tagging like this: people who were early adopters of Instagram and its filters in the first place. People who want desperately to convince you they're different from all the rest. They're real. As real as the photo they just took. For my part, I say there are many different ways to make beautiful things, and if you want to filter a photo, go right on ahead. Photography is an art, not an exact record, and it's not just filters that can manipulate images.