If you’ve seen my posts in various places over the last few months, you know my tech recommendations in terms of digital privacy: Signal, DuckDuckGo, Proton, VPN, no Google, etc. It’s been a fair amount of work making those switches but super satisfying, even a joy. For example, I actually look forward to using the Organic Maps app, the open source alternative I found for Google Maps.
(I won’t rehash all that AGAIN. You’re welcome.)
Another part of the tech equation is where and how to forge a digital home in the Age of Broligarchy.
I haven’t quite left the old house of Meta and Google. I’m still on FB for my friends, until it’s untenable. I deactivated IG/Threads but haven’t deleted yet, in part because once my new home(s) are fully built I hope to get some of those followers to come with me. I’m almost off Google entirely.
I’ve been on a building spree lately on new platforms (some, like Patreon, I’ve built and already abandoned).
Allow me to map out what I’ve been up to. If you’re looking to do some renovations yourself, this might also serve as a useful overview.
billcrandall.com (Squarespace)
After some concern that it was too stuffy and complex, I’m doubling-down on my long-time — and nearly comatose — Squarespace as my home base at billcrandall.com. I’m liking it a lot better since I finally got a grip on its features a bit more.
The landing page is a feed I will update often. I’m figuring out if RSS will work for it but hope you’ll consider old-fashioned bookmarking and check back sometimes. My goal is to work towards a website I refresh almost as often I would social media.
I’ve linked other platforms to my Squarespace as well, including cozy but somewhat obscure ones like Ko-fi, a donations site for creatives. I’ve started using it as an experimental ‘photo cafe’ member space for photography questions, dialogue, feedback, even mentorship in exchange for pay-what-you-can. Or you can just make a donation anytime.
I’ve been working on translating my years of teaching to online material. I’m not there yet but eventually I plan to add a member page on Squarespace for photo dialogue and curriculum, which might one day replace the photo cafe on Ko-fi.
I’ve had people ask me about print sales, something I’ve wanted to set up for quite a while. So I’m now using Darkroom (via Squarespace) for fine-art prints on demand. They do their own shipping, including international.
There is a batch of Nairobi images in there for starters — part of processing the new work for myself — with new ones (and other projects) coming weekly for the foreseeable future.
This newsletter is currently here on Substack, which I like but increasingly I have my qualms. For one, you may have heard about Substack’s ‘Nazi problem’ — that their hands-off approach to content moderation allows actual Nazis to set up camp. Not many, but one is too many. Substack’s co-founder also had some sketchy pro-regime comments recently that for a lot of people raised doubts about whether Substack long-term is the safe sanctuary for creatives that it appears. You can read more here about the curmudgeon case against Substack.
Any of these platforms could screw you eventually, simply as a result of their own success. I’ll probably ultimately move the newsletter to Squarespace. Already I’m cross-posting these posts to my Squarespace blog and longer pieces to Medium.
My plan is to operate as centrally as possible from the real estate I ‘own’ and control. That’s Squarespace. Need a good foundation for a homestead.
Bluesky is going ok. Not the liveliest place, takes a while to get traction, but it’s a good, non-toxic replacement for Twitter. At least it’s not Meta like Threads. I have to say the quality of chatty convo is better on Threads if that’s your jam. Following news and commentators is better on Bluesky and you can organize a feed of just your friends.
The question of digital homebuilding is also different for artists. How to not just showcase your work on a static portfolio site but create a more dynamic space?
How to connect, engage, and even create community?
How to present your work as having relevance and value beyond a click or a like?
As I’m now a former teacher and back to being a photographer (albeit someone who can’t work here in Kenya, and will be unemployed when I get back), these are questions I’m wrestling with.
For starters, to me relevance means combining my images with writing in new ways — both my new Nairobi series and older work that I’m taking a fresh look at — to expand the context, process, and stories around them. Also using archive images to illustrate posts like this one.
Value means offering ways to buy the work and/or support me directly in other ways. Otherwise a website is only the dreaded word for freelancers: exposure (what everyone wants to give you, in the hopes that someone else will pay you).
I hope you’ll find me in my non-oligarch homes. None are fully furnished yet but all are quite presentable, so I’m giving you all the house tours first.
Notice none of them benefit our worst bro overlords. And none of it involves doomscrolling. So more of the time I spend online is actually creative and productive instead of mindless and passive (though the struggle is still real).
If you’re already a subscriber thanks for sticking with me. As a digital semi-nomad (ironically writing about home-building), I hope my newsletter can at least be my small contribution in defense of art and culture and stubborn optimism.
As someone (cough) just put in my new bio on Squarespace, I do have a track record as “a warrior for truth-telling, empathy, community, education, and change through the arts”. Yeah, that’s quite the immodest mantle to claim but it’s true and I have receipts. That’s what I’m trying to build on, especially in this moment.
If you want to support me further, please consider:
- Upgrading to a paid subscription
- Sharing the photo cafe with someone who could benefit from my help with their photography (or signing up yourself so I can help you!)
- Buying a print
For those who actually read this far, bless you. It’s a lot, I know! Here’s the roundup with links:
billcrandall.com — My main Squarespace website, personal blog, print sales, etc
Ko-fi — A photographer support space (also integrated into Squarespace)
Darkroom — Print sales (also integrated into Squarespace and Substack)
Substack — My newsletter on photography, ‘future-music’, and how art can save us
Medium — Longer-form writing
Bluesky — Find me if you’re there
Hope you’ll visit and be in touch. Keep the faith, power on.