“A tyranny of technology”: The logic of Instagram in forming the photojournalistic professional persona through performed authenticity

Abstract

Authenticity in photojournalism as documentary evidence differs from Instagram-created authenticity as “sincere” self-presentation that equates self-branding with self-expression. Self-branding tactics can consolidate or compromise authenticity standards in photojournalism rooted in factuality, reality, and truth value. Yet, the rise of self-branding through performed authenticity by and of photojournalists on Instagram has not attracted scholarly interest. In this study, I undertake an automedial close reading of the persona performances of two established photojournalists. I probe (1) how Ed Kashi and Sebastian Rich engage with Instagram logic’s capitalist and commercial imperatives to construct an Instagram-mediated work persona through performed authenticity and (2) how they articulate the impression of authenticity in their Instagram portfolios. Kashi and Rich’s persona work does not necessarily conflict with the traditional identity roles, norms, and practices of photojournalism when they claim, pose, and promote authenticity as professional photojournalists on Instagram. The reading indicates that Kashi and Rich capitalise on their existing reputations to create an authentic, notable, and sometimes intimate image of their digital work-life-selves. They perform authenticity in ways that seem authentic yet are managed “safe enough” for the authenticity myth of photojournalism and the photojournalists themselves.

Introduction

Freelance photojournalists need online portfolios for self-branding, to attract clients and audiences and thus earn income (Mäenpää, 2014; Solaroli, 2015). Many perform their digital selves on Instagram to further their photojournalistic, commercial, artistic, and personal ends.

Self-branding constitutes a pervasive feature of social and economic platform life, “beholden to the logic of platform-specific branding” (Scolere et al., 2018: 9). Instagram encourages the labour of users that mingles authenticity with self-promotion (Duffy and Pooley, 2018; Enli, 2015; Leaver et al., 2020; Marwick, 2013; Matheson and Sedgwick, 2021). Hearn (2010: 427) defines self-branding as “a form of affective, immaterial labour” which individuals undertake to gain attention, reputation and, potentially, profit. Here I contribute to the existing literature in journalism (Hedman, 2020; Hermida and Mellado, 2020; Mellado and Hermida, 2022) and photojournalism studies (Alper, 2014; Borges-Rey, 2015; Brennen, 2010; Mäenpää, 2014; Silva and Eldridge, 2020; Solaroli, 2015). I unwrap perspectives about the Instagram-mediated persona work of a professional photojournalist through ongoing authenticity performances.

Photojournalism guards its aura as a practice and profession dedicated to “authentic” documentation. The authenticity myth in photojournalism promises the presentation of true, real, and factual information about the world – that is, documentary evidence. The field builds its evidence of reality on the illusion of photorealism (Alper, 2014; Borges-Rey, 2015; Brennen, 2010; Good and Lowe, 2017; Mäenpää, 2014; Solaroli, 2015; Taylor, 1998). Instagram’s often privileged theatre of authenticity presents as its own the ordinary, the unique, and the clichéd, fantasy and luxury, playfulness and seriousness, simulated or real intimacy, the professional and the calculatedly unprofessional, aesthetics and lack of aesthetics – and preferably commercialises them in the process. This logic requires Instagrammers to act as branded commodities (e.g., Banet-Weiser, 2012; Duffy, 2017; Gandini, 2016; Hearn, 2017; Marwick, 2013) to perform authenticity “whether or not these intimacies are actually ‘authentic’ or ‘genuine’” (Abidin, 2015: 9). The followers of Instagram-made lifestyle influencers and influencers themselves have their own set of criteria for what constitutes authenticity on Instagram. These criteria may differ from those of photojournalism documenting conflict-related and social or geopolitical issues. These differences emphasise the complexity of how photojournalistic and Instagram-created, self-branded authenticity fit (or do not fit) together. The meanings of the authenticity myths in both cases are open to criticism and are a paradox at play.

Photojournalists must manage their authenticity performances while negotiating with Instagram’s persona and presentation logic’s capitalist and commercial imperatives (Banet-Weiser, 2012; Black, 2020; Duffy, 2017; Hearn, 2010, 2017; Maguire, 2019; Marwick, 2013; Pooley, 2010). Instagram logic constrains the presentational quality of the mediated persona (Barbour et al., 2017; Lee, 2016; Marshall, 2015; Marshall et al., 2020). I see the concept of work persona as a practice and a consistent formation of the professional self (Marshall et al., 2020). As a term, persona “helps us understand the construction, constitution, and production of the self through identity play and performance by the individual in social settings” (Marshall and Barbour, 2015: 2). On Instagram, this performance occurs to create and manage the self-brand of authenticity.

My argument is that Instagram tyrannises its users to serve its capitalist purposes in the name of authenticity. Authenticity is a key performance principle on Instagram (Black, 2020). I recognise Instagram as “a site where practices of self-branding are developed and play out” (Maguire, 2019: 14) in the sense of marketing one’s skills and persona as if a “a well-arranged platter” (Brems et al., 2017: 445) through performed authenticity. I hence address a pioneering research issue: the way in which Instagram logic’s capitalist and commercial imperatives require professional photojournalists to brand their digital professional selves on Instagram by claiming, posing, and promoting authenticity. Thus, I build new and strengthen existing knowledge of a professional photojournalist’s Instagram persona. I fill a gap in journalism research on social media, where photojournalism is underrepresented.

I undertake a qualitative reading of the way two prominent photojournalists – equal in terms of reputation and achievements with similar professional interests – use Instagram to display their work and expertise. I discuss performed authenticity linked to self-presentation on Instagram by means of photojournalists Ed Kashi and Sebastian Rich. I shed light on what they “do” when they attempt to persuade the public of their professional capital and create an authentic image of themselves as professional photojournalists on Instagram. Instagram is a vital component of the “impression management” (Goffman, 1959) of their public image. As used here, impression management (Goffman, 1959: 9, Preface) through performed authenticity refers to how they present themselves on Instagram to others and try to guide and control the impression others create of them via Instagram.

On Instagram, Kashi and Rich have become part of what Abidin (2016: 90) calls “visibility labour”, meaning “the work individuals do when they self-posture and curate their self-presentations so as to be noticeable and positively prominent.” They are long-term photojournalists with acquired legitimacy and influence. Their established position was an important part of my decision to make them the focus of this study, in order to discuss the mediated persona and authenticity work of a photojournalist on Instagram.

I first define how I understand Instagram logic in relation to authenticity. Then I present the methodological framework, including my research questions. After outlining the data collected to undertake the research, I separately describe Kashi and Rich’s practices articulating authenticity through Instagram. Finally, I summarise the findings, acknowledge the limitations of the study, and provide my suggestions for future research.

Instagram logic and photojournalism

Instagram is part of the public market for the commodification of the private and the intimate (Lee, 2016), and this appears in the presentation of work persona online. In the digital age of social media, Goffman’s (1959) lines of frontstage and backstage performances of the self are blurred (Fiers, 2020), and rigid public frontstage self-presentation seems more complex and layered (Mellado and Hermida, 2022). Although using Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical metaphor for social media authenticity has been contested (Hogan, 2010), Instagram structures persona performances which often seem an “exposed” form of private or backstage presentation of the public (work) self (Marshall, 2015).

Social media logic means “the norms, strategies, mechanisms, and economies underpinning its dynamics” (van Dijck and Poell, 2013: 2). This logic promotes the combining of professional, personal, and private communication, pursuing virality and considerable metrics (Hedman, 2020). The authenticity myth in photojournalism forms a landmark in the field’s institutional and professional frontier, after which its practice and communication are something other than photojournalism (Borges-Rey, 2015; Brennen, 2010; Good and Lowe, 2017; Taylor, 1998). Social media has compromised the separation of journalism from personal, private, and marketing content, inevitably pushing journalism’s boundaries (Mellado and Hermida, 2022: 292).

I see a certain tyranny of Instagram logic expecting self-branded authenticity from the labour of Instagram-users: this business model and culture is characterised by its built-in marketing and status-building demands to perform authenticity (e.g., Banet-Weiser, 2012; Black, 2020; Duffy, 2017; Hearn, 2017; Maguire, 2019; Marwick, 2013). Contemporary photojournalism exists amidst self-branding cultures such as Instagram that seek to commodify authenticity and promote it as a powerful tool for self-presentation (Banet-Weiser, 2012). This “affective capitalism” merges the personal and commercial and seizes the users’ “desires, emotions, and forms of expressivity”, turning them into commodities as a vital part of the economic infrastructure (Hearn, 2017: 63).

Being “both a commodity and a currency”, authenticity is “a crucial part of Instagram’s economy” (Maguire, 2019: 15). Instagram’s capitalist and commercial imperatives participate in self-promotion and authenticity performances, which idealise and reward a particular (neoliberal) persona to be watched and consumed by others (Marwick, 2013: 13). This authenticity myth favours self-presentation that “encourages people to strategically apply business logics to the way they see themselves and others” (Marwick, 2013: 246). Black (2020: 46) argues that “the construction of a ‘personal brand’ allows users to access authenticity that embraces unreality and performance in the service of capital.”

This logic of authenticity promises to provide capitalist benefits for Instagrammers. For many, often the aspirational labour of young female aspirants, the social and financial profits remain merely a tyrannical illusion (Duffy, 2017). However, the photojournalists I study are not socially and economically dependent on Instagram. Notably, their profession and practice stem from a tradition of photojournalistic authenticity.

Importantly, the question of authenticity has been considered mainly through the authenticity of journalistic images – which is not the focus of this study. Given that photojournalism maintains its authority and value through the claims of (and commitment to) authenticity as an accurate and truthful recording of reality, photo filters on Instagram have caused controversy concerning the relative value of “untouched” photojournalism and photographs to which an application filter has been applied (Alper, 2014; Borges-Rey, 2015; Solaroli, 2015). Yet, some photojournalism studies have legitimately questioned to what extent photojournalism is, in fact, an authentic or rather credible representation of reality (Silva and Eldridge, 2020; Solaroli, 2015).

“The paradox of mediated authenticity” becomes highly complicated when introducing photojournalism and Instagram into the blend: Enli (2015: 1) writes that “although we base nearly all our knowledge about the world and the society in which we live on mediated representations, we remain well aware that media is constructed, manipulated, and even faked.” Authenticity myths – also regarding photojournalism’s stage management (Silva and Eldridge, 2020; Solaroli, 2015) – are always calculated (Pooley, 2010).

I approach authenticity in photojournalism as a profession and practice as follows: authenticity combines “authentication techniques, narrative storytelling, and the quest for trueness to oneself as authentic life” (Black, 2020: 46). I associate authenticity with senses of intimacy and realness (Lee, 2016; Marshall et al., 2020; Smith and Watson, 2014). Maguire (2019: 15) reminds us how “Instagram implicitly promises to deliver self-presentations that are sincere, if not completely true to life (thanks to the popular practice of retouching photographs), and this is a core part of its appeal.” Whilst the concept is incongruous, authenticity is also understood here as meanings of “honesty” and “transparency” (Enli, 2015; Marwick, 2013). Thus, I contribute to the scholarly discussion from the perspective of the persona and authenticity work of a photojournalist performed as impression management to create a self-brand of authenticity on Instagram. I add a novel dimension to the existing literature about the platform and affective capitalism of authenticity at this intersection of Instagram and photojournalistic authenticities.

The framework of automediality

I conduct a qualitative reading of the Instagram portfolios of Ed Kashi and Sebastian Rich. This involves an “automedial close reading” that brings the roles and effects of (auto)mediation of a photojournalist into close attention (Kaipainen, 2022a; Kennedy and Maguire, 2018): “‘automedial close reading’ does not mean code identification but an active, sensitive interpretation process, and theoretical, conceptual, and contextual reflection with and against the texts and subjects of study” (Kaipainen, 2022a: 445). I see Kashi and Rich’s ongoing self-presentation through Instagram “as automedial texts that need to be read and interpreted, and which work to construct the authorial self or persona” (Maguire, 2014: para. 3, Maguire’s emphasis).

Interviews and media ethnographic observations work as complementary methods, building the basis for this adaptation of close reading. The research interviews provide reliability and ethicality to the interpretations of Kashi and Rich’s persona and authenticity work on Instagram.

The framework of automediality considers (auto)mediation brought into being and produced through the mediating Instagram, thus, defining the nature of the public self (Kaipainen, 2022a; Kennedy and Maguire, 2018; Maguire, 2014; Smith and Watson, 2014). Automediality directs “the concept of mediation to the terrain of the autobiographical and the self-presentation of online sites” (Smith and Watson, 2014: 77). I understand “automedia”, as Poletti and Rak (2018: para. 3) propose: “the mediation of identity when identity is both a product of representation and a process that is continually becoming, expressed in the double meaning of the word ‘life’ as biography and as process.”

This investigation of Kashi and Rich’s Instagram profiles (as texts) that create their online personas extends toward analysing the practices of the presentation and authentication of the Instagram-mediated work-life-self (the process and outcome of persona and authenticity performances) understood as the work of automediality. In this close reading adaptation of what Kennedy and Maguire (2018: para. 7) call “automedial reading”, I examine (1) how Kashi and Rich engage with Instagram logic’s capitalist and commercial imperatives to construct an Instagram-mediated work persona through performed authenticity and (2) how they articulate the impression of authenticity in their Instagram portfolios.

Considering the questions above, I provide illustrative or evidentiary examples of persona and authenticity work from Kashi and Rich’s Instagram accounts. The findings are neither exhaustive nor definitive. Yet, the insights of this interdisciplinary three-way investigative intersection of (auto)mediation, Instagram logic, and performed authenticity provide their novel contribution to future scholarly works and thinking. The insights are relevant to photojournalism research but also broader fields of persona, digital media, and life narrative studies.

Research data

Ed Kashi is “a leading voice in the photojournalism world” (LensCulture, 2022) who documents social and geopolitical issues, such as the conflict in Northern Ireland and the plight of Syrian refugees, for traditional publishers such as National Geographic, The New Yorker, and TIME Magazine. Sebastian Rich has covered almost every major conflict of the last 40 years, starting his career in a UK-based television production company ITN (Independent Television News) in 1980. Rich’s Instagram account was initially set up by UNICEF’s Children’s Emergency Fund, so he could share images instantly when on assignment for them.

This reading centres on the research interviews, selected Instagram posts, and my observations from Kashi and Rich’s Instagram portfolios. As for the interviews, the questions dealt with their thoughts about Instagram, their use of Instagram and their goals for using Instagram. I let the photojournalists choose their preferred method, which in Kashi’s (2019) case was by email and in Rich’s (2019) case face-to-face, naturally affecting the format and content of the interviews. Rich’s answers were freer, as were the questions I asked, than Kashi’s, who answered the questions posed in the email in a precise fashion.

They selected five Instagram posts typical to them (I will not present all here). This kept the amount of data material I collected from their public Instagram profiles manageable. Over and above the research questions, the posts themselves both enable and require Kashi and Rich to articulate their practices as well as underlying motivations, strategies, and feelings for using Instagram. I will also present a few Instagram posts that I selected from their Instagram portfolios to consider further the questions I address in this study.

By following Kashi and Rich on Instagram, I have kept an eye on their practices and activities, as shared on their posts on Instagram, also retrospectively. However, this fieldwork did not involve coding or journaling but long-term shadowing for 4 years. Thus, I experienced and got to understand how they communicate when they construct, pose, and authenticate their online personas on Instagram. This observation process includes multiple texts I have written for myself or various academic contexts.

In the following two sections, I provide an overview of how Kashi and Rich use Instagram when they move onto this automedia platform and present their professional selves, thereby claiming, posing, and promoting authenticity. The content posted on Instagram is not solely photographic: yet, as Leaver et al. (2020: 41) note, “the myriad visual forms presented on Instagram accounts all contribute to the presentation of experiences, identities, communication and more that were examined within the practice of photography.” I analyse Kashi and Rich’s work-driven Instagram accounts and their posts, including intertextual, visual, and textual information such as profile bios and captions in their published setting.

I restrict the loop of reading to Kashi and Rich’s persona and authenticity performances. I exclude the comments made on their posts by other Instagrammers. Also, I do not probe the question of Instagram’s algorithm or software, which is beyond the scope of this article.

First reading: Ed Kashi

This analysis is based on observing Kashi’s Instagram profile until 13 March 2023 and the research interview (2019, conducted by email). I have also read his self-presentation by asking him to select five of his own Instagram posts. These five identity presentations required him to verbalise his underlying motivations and strategies for using Instagram. I present one of his choices here to further reflect on the performed authenticity promotion of Instagram-mediated persona.

Kashi has a verified badge next to his username on his Instagram profile. A blue badge indicates that Instagram has confirmed the public account as “authentic and notable” (Instagram Blog, 2022). A blue-badged account needs to “represent a real person”, who is “well-known, highly searched for” (Instagram Help Centre, 2022). It must have “the real presence of the public figures, celebrities and brands they represent” (Instagram Settings, 2022). Kashi has also a View Shop button on his Instagram account, offering a way for him to sell his photo books.

Kashi uses Instagram for professional, aesthetic, and impact purposes to show who he is to his audience: “My relationship [with Instagram] has gone from interested, passionate believer, questioning practitioner, annoyed user, accepting it as a major part of my professional and in some ways personal life.” He aims to use images that translate well in a small space, “where people do not take a lot of time to examine images”, as is the case when Instagram is consumed on a mobile phone. He shares professional outputs from his recent and archived work, sometimes also promoting his colleagues’ or work-related partners’ contributions, and only occasionally reveals content from the domestic sphere. With the intimate images of his family members, he often draws attention to political and professional issues as a strategy to mix the personal with a message he wants to promote, as he also explained in the research interview.

Discussing the following post (see ©Ed Kashi/VII, @edkashi, https://www.instagram.com/p/BgbFay4FehZ/, selected by Kashi), Kashi expressed his intention to share this Northern Ireland conflict-related photograph from his work archive on Instagram: “This was a popular post for me, especially given it’s a black and white image, but it’s from a personal project that I wanted to share as part of a series, which I’ll do every so often, to publish archival works.”

edkashi

Children play around an impromptu bonfire in The Fountain, a Loyalist housing estate in Londonderry, Northern Ireland on Aug. 11, 1989.

@viiphoto #viiphoto#NorthernIreland

Self-presentation on Instagram attempts to portray a particular impression and a form of the meaning of the public persona to others (Goffman, 1959). One of the functions of Kashi’s Instagram portfolio seems to be to present the highlights of his long career as “noticeable and positively prominent” (Abidin, 2016: 90). In the image, posted on 17 March 2018, children surround the impromptu bonfire, and one of the youngsters jumps over the blazing lumber in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on 11 August 1989. “Londonderry”, mentioned in the caption, is significant: that is the official name, but Catholics (and those who sympathise with the idea of a united Ireland, free of British rule) refer to the city as Derry. There is the British flag on the facade of the house and the church tower can be seen behind the wall. The caption text, #NorthernIreland, and given year contextualise the image to a specific place and time in history. A significant detail, the British flag, offers connotations when the background is explained in the caption, although not profoundly. Composition, lines, and postures guide the reader’s eyes, reinforcing the narrative impression unfolding. I interpret the bonfire to symbolise the ethno-nationalist conflict named. The child jumping over the flames (while others wait for their turn to participate) brings tension to the image, reflecting the prevailing ongoing volatile societal situation at that time.

Kashi can circulate the same black and white image more than once (see ©Ed Kashi/VII, @edkashi, https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Iz7EYjsFM/, selected by me):

edkashi

Photo by @edkashi/@viiphoto | Children play around an impromptu bonfire in The Fountain, a Loyalist housing estate in Northern Ireland on Aug. 11, 1989.

#edkashi #photoville #unitedphoto#outdoorexhibition #photojournalism#documentary #northernireland#equality #struggle #thetroubles#bw #blackandwhite #ireland #irish#conflict #brooklyn#brooklynbridgepark #brooklynny#nyc #ny #bonfire #childhood#derry #londonderry

In this post, posted on 20 July 2019, the tags such as @edkashi, #edkashi, #photojournalism, #documentary, or #conflict offer a signal about the authority and authenticity of the work persona, the content’s professional nature, and the genre or classification of the post, including framing this Instagram persona’s social connections as an indication of Kashi’s professional status and value. “#Photoville” refers to an annual photography festival in New York City and a programme of public art exhibitions, suggesting his links with events, institutions, locations, and brands. “#Thetroubles” alludes to the period of renewed conflict between nationalists (Irish/Roman Catholic) and unionists (British/Protestant) from the late 1960s onwards (officially ended by the Belfast Agreement in 1998).

In the following case, posted on 13 April 2019, the same image of the bonfire children (see ©Ed Kashi/VII, @edkashi, https://www.instagram.com/p/BwM9TjsghRT/, selected by me), advertises a print sale without background information or using tags like #thetroubles which would illuminate the historical and political context of this visual object, originally a documentary photograph.

edkashi

My 1989 image from Northern Ireland is also available throughout the @VIIPhoto iconic #printsale. These 8 × 10″ prints are all signed and embossed with the #viiphoto logo. Link in bio. #VIIArchive #FlashSale #photosale#edkashi #fromthearchives

As these examples remind us, the photographic image can be placed, circulated, and mediated within different contexts, each of which can change its meaning (Hand, 2017). Kashi’s Instagram journalistic images have moved from a representative or indexical character towards a sociotechnical structure and the dynamics of intertextuality: their meanings are part of a discursive framing by Instagram (Hand, 2017). These Instagram-mediated images are part of an automedial Instagram-driven self-presentation, professional persona construction, and a performative strategy for impression management of the branded self, where tags also play an integral role in this performed impression of authorial authenticity.

As demonstrated in the examples above, forming the professional persona benefits from continuity: Kashi creates an illusion of consistency through repeated use of the same image, but also makes strategic use of Instagram’s tagging features (e.g., #viiphoto and @viiphoto). By so doing, different roles and aspects of the profession and public work become visible, and the professional persona is identifiable and seems authentic. Recognition requires repetition to assert and manage Kashi’s Instagram-mediated persona’s authority and authenticity, and to build and uphold him as a trusted brand. This performative repetition is undertaken by sharing the same visual content or caption and repeatedly using the same tags. Furthermore, consistency through repetition arises from sharing similar kinds of content in a recognisable, sustained style or theme and maintaining a coherent pattern of automedial actions, which demonstrates his professional and social status by marketing the value of this branded self.

Despite the continuity of his persona performances on Instagram, Kashi’s self-presentation also evolves. His captions have become considerably longer and more detailed, in particular through personal storytelling where he deploys an intimate and emotional voice, compared to the posts he chose for the interview as a representative sample of how he displays who he is to his audience. This development in his self-presentation can be seen, for example, in the Instagram post made on 8 July 2022, where he promotes an upcoming newsletter. The black and white self-portrait is his reflection in a mirror, taken in Northern Ireland while he was working on a project “No Surrender: The Protestants” (see ©Ed Kashi/VII, @edkashi, https://www.instagram.com/p/CfwexoEsGKp/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D, selected by me).

edkashi

In the forty plus years I’ve been working in the field of photojournalism and documentary photography and now filmmaking, I’ve seen the photo industry change exponentially. Social media has become a central part of our culture, and Instagram itself has been a powerful platform for photographers to share work, connect with global audiences, and self-publish.

But that accessibility comes with a price. From being tied to ever-changing algorithms to preoccupation with metrics, and the simplification of complex issues, Instagram has many limitations. This is why I’ve decided to launch a bimonthly newsletter. I hope this new platform will allow me to thoughtfully share stories, musings, upcoming projects and a behind-the-scenes look into the workings of my studio and in the field.

Before I picked up a camera, I dreamed of being a writer. Regardless of the medium, storytelling is deeply important in the work I do and the issues I’ve covered throughout my career. I hope my newsletter will provide an alternate way to connect with all of you. You can sign up for the newsletter at the link in my bio ✌

Ed Kashi / VII Photo Agency © Self-portrait taken in Northern Ireland while working on “No Surrender: The Protestants”. 1989

#edkashi #viiphoto #newsletter#photojournalism #photoindustry#documentaryphotography#videojournalism #selfportrait#mynatgeoshot

The newsletter provides an alternate way to connect with the audience, “to thoughtfully share stories, musings, upcoming projects and a behind-the-scenes look into the working of my studio and in the field.” Kashi needs this new medium because of the limitations of Instagram “from being tied to ever-changing algorithms to preoccupation with metrics” and “the simplification of complex issues” as the caption states. As an attention grabber, the self-portrait with its intimate and authentic atmosphere and the caption’s confessional self-life-narration promotes his newsletter and, thus, his professional persona as being worthy of devotion and engagement. The post advances his networked self-branding and validates his public image to market it as authentic, intimate, and notable as part of broader impression management using different automedia platforms. In referring to the newsletter, the post maximises the capital of his earned reputation as one of the leading voices in the field of photojournalism.

Second reading: Sebastian Rich

Rich has user-named his profile @hopefocus, specifying his name as “Sebastian Rich/Blacklight Images”. The Instagram bio frames him with one word, “photojournalist”, the peace symbol emoji, ☮, and a link to his work-related website (as viewed on 13 March 2023). In our semi-structured research interview (2019, conducted face-to-face), he described himself as “a photojournalist in a normal journalistic sense” and “a humanitarian photographer” who posts images when working “with NGOs and the United Nations”. During the interview, he also referred himself as “a war and conflict photographer”, demonstrating the various aspects of photojournalism and the challenge of self-definition.

Instagram offers him a public domain in which to raise issues such as female genital mutilation (see ©Sebastian Rich, @hopefocus, https://www.instagram.com/p/BnhZkH9BmwT/, selected by Rich) and the injuries caused to US soldiers by roadside bombs (see ©Sebastian Rich, @hopefocus, https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm7XxdEH41X/, selected by Rich), which may be too sensitive for traditional print media. Additionally, he publishes archival contributions from the full range of his long career, especially humanitarian outputs. According to him, these archival photographs are relevant because, for example, the war continues. Besides war and conflict-related content, he also shares “gentle issues” such as images of ballet dancers, as “an artistic expression”.

As with Kashi, I asked Rich to select five of his own Instagram posts. When showing these to me, Rich stated that “a lot of them are just pretty pictures, but some of them have historical value. I show ones that I am particularly proud of, I suppose.” This black and white image below (see ©Sebastian Rich, @hopefocus, https://www.instagram.com/p/BoDIxCcBMMS/, selected by Rich), posted on 23 September 2018, presents, according to the caption, “one of the first Iraqi prisoners of war (2003) captured by the USMC (United States Marine Corps) hooded and bound in a makeshift desert prison during the first days of the ground war in Iraq.”

hopefocus

www.sebastianrichphotography.com

One of the first Iraqi prisoners of war (2003) captured by the USMC (United States Marine Corps) hooded and bound in a makeshift desert prison during the first days of the ground war in Iraq.

#iraq #conflictphotography #war#worldphotoagency

The post is framed with hashtags: #iraq #conflictphotography #war #worldphotoagency. Rich described the image, also shared at the time via traditional media, as “shocking” since people did not realise that prisoners were treated like that in the twenty-first century. From time to time, he posts the archival image “because it is such a powerful photograph”, maintaining public awareness about the event through Instagram.

Rich had periodically closed his account, or would sometimes delete “a post, and then repost it, not as a new – oh well, as new – if it is an image that I feel strongly about, I post it as if it was a first time”, describing these performative actions as “experiments”. I interpret these experiments as attempts to counter Instagram’s preferred logic. Actions like these, however, may work against an Instagram-user’s impression management by destabilising the relationship of engagement and communication between the Instagram persona and its followers.

Throughout the interview, Rich displayed a critical attitude toward Instagram, saying “Instagram is a devil I kind of have to use, and I find ways to tame the devil a little bit.” In his criticism, Rich referred to a celebrity culture in which his photograph of actress Salma Hayek in a refugee camp gets more “likes” than, for instance, the image of a refugee girl. He repeatedly expressed doubts about the usefulness of Instagram as a means to raise awareness of the story behind the photographs. Instagram requires him to edit his captions, not allowing him to link to other websites. If Rich puts the link in the caption to add information about the context of the image, the link does not work. The short attention span of the imagined public also influences his “ability to tell a proper story”, he told me.

Rich aims to use tags for others to learn more about the content (story) of the post, not about him. His view is that Instagram is more for individuals who want others to find and get to know them. To pursue his professional goals, framed with tagging and other Instagram features, he aims to achieve a particular authorial, authentic, and communicative positioning in the eyes of others. As self-fashioning, namely self-editing his public persona construction, he monitors his behaviour on Instagram so that this constructed and curated Instagram-mediated professional persona is not “too personal”. This became evident when we discussed the poems on his Instagram account: “One day they maybe are turning into a book: ‘Questionable dyslexic poems, thoughts and even more questionable war stories from bars, bedrooms and trenches by Sebastian Rich in every single war zone’. Sometimes I think that they are maybe too personal.” He typically shares his dark, intimate, and self-disclosing poems with friends. Now and again, he posts them on Instagram with an image of himself taken in the work field behind the scenes because it seems an appropriate way to illustrate such personal texts.

Too frequent use of “backstage” performances that seem private can challenge the impression of authenticity, compromising trust and, therefore, the public’s evaluation of the photojournalist as a professional. The mediation process between the photojournalist and Instagram is a constant self-fashioning involving judgement about how much of the behind-the-scenes self and life should be revealed to create an impression that is authentic yet professional. In Rich’s case, the impression of authorial authenticity mainly comes from affective attachments, emotional expressions, personal thoughts and revealed feelings, work-related lived and felt experiences exposed in his images and their captions, often within the tagging features he uses concerning his calls and contributions to and around photojournalism – from what elsewhere I call “professional intimacy” (Kaipainen, 2022b).

There are exceptions, though (see ©Sebastian Rich, @hopefocus, https://www.instagram.com/p/CSgI6sxDqcr/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D, selected by me). This black and white self-portrait, posted on 13 August 2021, shows his bare chest and his tattoos. Rich reflects on this specific genre in the accompanying text in a self-disclosive, intimate manner:

hopefocus

A self portrait is a curious uncomfortable mix of vulnerability, narcissism, self deceit, ego and of course a terrible arrogance intertwined with the presumption that it will be interesting to others.

A curious process indeed !

#selfportrait #arrogance #ego#narsissist #vulnerability #isitart

Instagram communication expects, if not demands, intimate self-presentation and “authenticity narratives” (Matheson and Sedgwick, 2021) like the self-portrayal above. These kinds of content confuse the distinctions between the front and backstage of the public-facing self (Goffman, 1959). This persona and authenticity work signals the authorial performer’s inner substance or, borrowing Rich’s word, “ego”, which is displayed and posed in this social setting to others also by means of the hashtag function: #selfportrait #arrogance #ego #narcissist #vulnerability #isitart.

Discussion

I have considered how photojournalists Ed Kashi and Sebastian Rich engaged with Instagram logic’s capitalist and commercial imperatives to construct an Instagram-mediated work persona through performed authenticity and how they articulated the impression of authenticity. I analysed how they signal their social and professional value “in a high-status light” (Marwick, 2013: 122) claiming and posing authenticity. In Marwick’s (2013: 252) investigation focusing on Twitter (now X), one’s public self is performed in an “authentic” way where thoughts and feelings are filtered via a capitalist logic safe for the presentation of professional self. Kashi and Rich’s texts and acts on Instagram perform “noticeable and positively prominent” (Abidin, 2016: 90), the curated image of themselves as genuine photojournalists, in a safe way that will meet the needs and expectations of their field, clients, and audiences.

Kashi and Rich’s accounts become a record and ongoing presentation of their professional personas to reinforce and promote the public image they would like others to perceive – one that is authentic, notable, and intimate. They both use archival content demonstrating their achievements along their long career path. What is worth noting here is the function these posts from their archives perform as part of the currency and capital of the branded persona. Their Instagram posts accrue and substantiate value for their self-brand: as per my interpretation, not only (1) to maintain the collective and networked memory of a historic event or (2) to nurture personal triumphs or proud moments from the past but also (3) to establish, validate and authenticate this memory as a commodity integral to the present work persona and its ongoing (self-)projects.

Furthermore, Kashi and Rich signal their professional position by emphasising their role and public work in their biographical statements and including a link to their professional website(s). This indicates “one of Instagram’s key uses as a promotional space to grow and engage an audience which can then be funnelled elsewhere” (Maguire, 2019: 20). They also demonstrate their professional capital through Instagram posts using #- and @- symbols. Tagging increases their visibility on the platform in terms of their professional and public work (Fiers, 2020). The hashtags they use boost the consumption and visibility of posts through views and likes, and imply a social circle and high status as someone popular and successful among follower-fans, especially in the case of Kashi (Marshall et al., 2020). In both their cases, tags can variously offer journalistic metadata information, such as the shooting location of the image; signal personal and intimate emotions or opinions; act as a marker of social and professional status and value as a part of the performance of authenticity and self-promotion.

Tagging posts to the Instagram account of a journalistic or similar institution adds to the professional authority and authenticity of Kashi and Rich’s work personas; the tags function as a mark of social and professional status. Tags such as #photojournalism, #edkashi, or @viiphoto indicate the professional nature of the content, the genre of the post, and this Instagram persona’s institutional, social, and professional connections; and may therefore increase the credibility and authorial authenticity of the photojournalist. Yet, it requires platform-specific audience research to find out whether these kinds of tags do in fact achieve this goal.

I limited the study’s aspirations to a close reading of textual, image, and persona representations of Instagram. I conducted interviews to support this interpretation process. Rather than using code identification, I adopted an active, sensitive interpretation process that revolved around concepts such as persona and automediality (Kaipainen, 2022a). However, a strict thematic coding system would have enabled broader empirical engagement. I would have coded and noted the types of “authenticity illusions” (e.g., predictability, confessions, and ordinariness, Enli, 2015) more precisely. Also, I did not differentiate between performed, claimed, and ascribed authenticity.

I limited this study to two Western male photojournalists, which limited the analysis outputs. Therefore, the findings are not generalisable for a wider group of photojournalists in terms of ethnicity and gender. One might also expect a lifestyle photojournalist’s behaviour on Instagram to differ from that of a war photographer. Due to the small-scale nature of the study, the findings are descriptive and suggestive. Yet, this research can provide a signpost for further automedial close readings in the contexts of photojournalism and Instagram.

There is room to think about social media intertwining logic(s) and, more sensitively, to what extent this logic differs from one automedia platform to another. It is unexplored how photojournalists, including women, photojournalists of colour and from different countries, create interest in their photojournalism and themselves on Instagram to promote and authenticate their professional agenda and identity, and whether their certifications are, in fact, persuasive, credible, and ethical. Academic research deserves further qualitative analyses of Instagram-mediated professional personas, explicitly focusing on photojournalism.

As such, there is a need to critically examine the role played by Instagram’s persona and presentation logic – in particular, its demand for authenticity – in the manufacturing of the professional self of a photojournalist. What are the implications of that role? Capitalist authenticity performances of Instagram-mediated work-life-self may be safe and beneficial for Western photojournalists to maintain and promote their notable careers. Yet, this study did not address vital ethical issues of whether this kind of persona and authenticity work reinforces existing power structures or ways of representing otherness.

Overall, this reading indicates that Kashi and Rich’s performances adjusted to and negotiated the expectations and imaginations they have about photojournalism, Instagram, and their audiences (Kaipainen, 2022a; Scolere et al., 2018). Their persona and authenticity work through Instagram does not necessarily conflict with the traditional identity roles, norms, and practices of photojournalism. After a short period of using heavy filters, Kashi has subsequently wanted to keep the look and feel as true to life and neutral as possible – according to my interpretation, as authentic as possible.

The juxtaposition of their “frontstage” identity as photojournalists with “backstage” authenticity (e.g., Kashi’s images of his family or Rich’s intimate poems) promotes their public images as “authentic”. Kashi and Rich reveal glimpses of intimacy and realness: they maintain personal and intimate content and communication besides and beyond journalistic testimonial “storytelling” in ways that seem authentic, notable, and intimate on Instagram. Yet, the persona and authenticity work is managed, promoted and “safeguarded enough” to uphold and protect the authenticity myth of photojournalism and the photojournalists themselves.

The capitalist underpinnings of Instagram-created authenticity do not come without criticism when this promotional marketplace system offers one template for the construction and commodification of work-life-selves in the digital age (Banet-Weiser, 2012; Black, 2020; Maguire, 2019; Pooley, 2010). Black (2020: 46) shifts the scholarly conversation toward “the performances that structure authenticity”: he argues that the platform capitalist internet “weaponizes the performance of self to capture, gather data on, and sell back truth itself.” What is advancing Instagram and its capital – earning visibility, attention, reputation, and profit (Abidin, 2016; Duffy, 2017; Hearn, 2010, 2017) for Meta – may not always serve the interests of professional photojournalists. Kashi recognised “a certain tyranny of technology” inherent in Instagram. Rich called Instagram “the devil”.

Due to the expectations and ideals attached to professional photojournalism, stricter than those of Instagram-made influencers, photojournalists are under scrutiny concerning their presentation of authenticity. Instagram may not inspire trust as a medium to construct a professional work persona and publish journalistic content. The ability to perform the aura of authenticity is crucial in maintaining trust in photojournalism. The way in which some users of Instagram perform authenticity may generate a lack of trust in work-life-selves and authenticity performances. Once trust and credibility are called into question, then the Instagram posts and their messages undermine the professional persona’s professionalism and journalistic calls.