The Best Place to Find Inspiration for Photographers is VSCO (2024)

Last year, I found myself falling into an incredibly toxic trap: social media rabbit holes. Social media annoyed me, but I kept going back to it because I truly forgot what life was like before it. At 37 years old, Facebook and Instagram have been around for more than 1/3rd of my life and I’ve been using them for so long. But they’re designed to suck you in and become all that you base your world on. Several apps are like this: I’m pretty sure that many millennials could go on and on about how toxic dating apps are. I thought that all apps could be toxic, until I started to try out several alternatives. Since then, a lot has changed, but I’ve stuck with one more than the rest: VSCO.

Editor’s Note: This article is presented in partnership with VSCO. But my feelings on the app and community has been present long before they decided to work with the Phoblographer. Check them out today.

I previously wrote about how VSCO is a place for good vibes — and it still is. While social media like Instagram is a place for your friends, VSCO is a place for you to get more serious about your work. You’re not going to see your mom or the neighbor from the gym here. It’s a place just for visual creatives. But more importantly, it’s a fantastic place for photographers.

Where Instagram is an echo chamber for trending hashtags, VSCO is a place where you can organically just find good photography. The algorithms don’t push down something because it doesn’t do well. Instead, it works the way that it really should — by not getting in the way of you enjoying your feed. If Instagram is more like a buzzing horseshoe fly constantly getting in the way of your computer screen as you’re trying to edit, VSCO is the pet you adopted that just wants to spend time in the same room as you instead. There isn’t a single day that I wouldn’t choose the unconditional love of a pet.

On VSCO, you start off by posting some of your best work that you truly feel exemplifies who you are. It may include work that you’d post on your website, but also maybe some extra stuff too. From there, you use their search and discover features. VSCO already curates a few things like AAPI, Melanin, selects that are tagged with #vsco, stuff just for you based on what you like, pride, water, sun and shade, etc. But you can do your own searches too. I often look for photojournalism, street photography, conceptual, ethereal, surreal, and portraits. Obviously, the latter is such a wide open space. So when you’re searching, it makes sense to be a bit more specific. That, of course, means that you should also be rooted in your photographic identity.

To that end, VSCO is a place for photographers who want to actually grow. They’re comfortable in their own skin and they’re ready to speak to the world in a quieter space. If you’ve ever tried networking with people at a loud party, you’d understand how difficult it can be when there are tons of people around. Instead, making real connections happens much better in more private spaces with less chaos. There’s nothing worse than speaking to someone for five minutes and then being interrupted by someone random when you’re trying to make a connection. Real, deep connections take time and quiet concentration.

After searching for photographers, following them, favoriting their images, sharing them in your feed, etc., you can join spaces. If you pay for a VSCO membership (very worth it since there are no ads) then you can also take part in various conversations in pretty exclusive spots. From there, you can find other people to follow. Those people end up sharing the work of others in the feed — and you’ll often find people who do pretty incredible work. You can always then go to your profile to search for the stuff that you’ve reposted. Otherwise, head to the menu to find your favorites. From there, you’ll find a plethora of inspiration to get lost in over time.

Here’s a big tip: follow creative people first and foremost. If you follow those people and keep your head on straight, they’ll lead you to the right spots. And that’s part of what makes VSCO so good—there aren’t random companies trying to advertise to you or influencers trying to turn this into a place driven by the attention economy. As I typed that sentence, I was reminded of a few Black Mirror episodes, and thankfully, VSCO doesn’t feel like that.

For interactivity, VSCO recently enabled discussions on the main feed. So you can actually have conversations with folks about their work. So far from what I’ve seen, everyone has been really positive and serious about helping one another instead of trying to bring other people down.

Better yet, VSCO doesn’t try to keep you inside the app at all costs by feeding you tons of other random stuff to distract you for a bit of extra dopamine. Instead, it’s for you to actually find meaningful connections. Want to collaborate with another artist? You can directly message them and start talking. I’ve done that with a few folks and even found people who I’ve interviewed before for this website.

You’ve probably noticed by now that I haven’t even mentioned the presets that VSCO has long been known for. And that’s because they’re just things in the background. Sure, photographers use them — and they’re good. In fact, when you share an image edited with a preset, that preset recipe is then shown in the feed. But you don’t need to use them. If you’re fine with how your image was when you exported it from your editor, then just go ahead and share it within the feed as is.

VSCO has entered a major metamorphosis stage where they’re becoming a sub-species of app that’s thriving because they’re trying a new tactic. You’ve probably read those articles about the wolves that hunt in the rivers for fish — unlike many others of their species. Well, VSCO could be thought of as the photography world’s sea wolf. And in a world where we’re vastly changing the landscape every day, I’m all about this.

To boot, they’re also not feeding your images to the big AI companies while so many others are. Instead, your work is yours and it’s protected. Afterall, what’s more important to a photographer than their own creations.

I highly suggest you taking the next step to become your better self. If you haven’t been finding success on other platforms, give VSCO a try. They’re actively partnering with other brands for licensing challenges and such. And for us to have a wonderful place like this, we need to do what we can to keep the marketplace alive for all of us.