Please Don’t Repost My Picture
I know that this could ruffle some feathers, but I feel this is something that needs to be talked about in the creative community. As an artist and product shop owner, I work VERY hard to create the images in my Instagram feed. I plan product shooting days. I buy props for my photoshoots. I pay my friends to model for me. I buy coffee to brew for the glass coffee mugs. I buy donuts (and try really hard to not eat them). I write out a plan for every single picture I create. I have a checklist. I edit the photos. I export them and upload them to my phone.
I say all of this to show you how much work goes into my images. It’s a lot.
And if I post a picture of a hand-lettered quote (like this or this), I take time to write the create and paint the design. Sometimes I digitize it too.
It all takes time.
Have you heard the saying “time is money”? Well, if you have then you know that all this work is kinda costing me money.
I don’t regret it. I don’t do it begrudgingly. I do it on purpose. I want to create a specific brand and aesthetic in my marketing. It’s important to me.
But sometimes I get really discouraged and disheartened by the lack of care for this hard work. I have found my photos reposted without credit, or limited credit, or with a new filter on the image. This is disheartening for multiple reasons. First off, when you don’t properly credit the artist, you are kinda sorta stealing their art. They have worked hard to create an image and without credit, it can just keep getting reposted and lost and the original artist never gets recognition. Second, it’s disheartening because it makes me feel frustrated and violated and I never want to have hard feelings towards others on social media. I feel misrepresented, mistreated, and that my work isn’t valuable. And finally, it makes me sad that people aren’t willing to do the easy work to properly credit someone else. When you repost a picture and take no regard for the original artist in an effort to build your feed, you are building a foundation of self-servitude. You are only caring about your own advancement.
Now, I don’t want to come off as mean or rude in this post. I truly want to say all of these things because I genuinely believe most people just don’t know. They aren’t aware. They haven’t been educated.
And that’s what I hope to do! I want to teach you proper reposting etiquette and how you can make an artist feel important and valued through the process!
Step One: consider asking for permission. I love it when someone sends me a direct message on Instagram asking for permission to repost my image. It makes me feel like they care about me as an artist and it gives me an opportunity to educate them about resposting images.
Step Two: find the ORIGINAL artist. If you find a picture that you want to repost, make sure that that specific image was not reposted by someone else. If it was, give credit to both accounts. Do your homework.
Step Three: tag the person in the picture AND the caption. So many times people JUST tag me in the actual photo. About 95% of the time, that does nothing for me as the artist. Give me credit in the caption as well, most people don’t tap on the photo to see who is tagged in the photo. They assume YOU created the image.
Step Four: don’t just give a tiny little credit at the end of a long caption. Nobody reads that. Give some extra love and appreciation for the artist who created the image. This goes a long way, trust me.
Step Five: If your reposted image gets reposted, CORRECT that person and give credit to the original artist. If you see that an image you reposted from a different account, make sure you advocate for that artist! Be kind, spread the spirit of community, and work hard to make sure credit is given where credit is due!
See? It’s not too hard!
And quite frankly: if you’re unwilling to commit to the above steps, then please don’t repost my image. I love you and I think you’re great. But, if you’d like to use my art, be willing to credit me. Good talk.