A fresh look at photo sharing

In my previous post I suggested that none of the alternative photo sharing apps could touch Instagram, and I still believe that.  However....... I have been very intrigued and impressed by Backspaces, a fairly new app that takes the photo sharing concept to a different level, by allowing the user to group their images, text and geotags, and bring it all together before posting as a complete 'story'.  Out of all the photosharing apps I have seen and joined, this one has fired my imagination more than most.

I first signed up about three weeks ago after seeing an Instagram friend's shared post on Twitter.  I found some familiar names to follow and posted a small series of photos as a test run.  Nothing too spectacular there, but this weekend I had a good look around the app and found lots more familiar Instagram names as well as the three developers Dimitri, Adrian and Wylie to follow.  These three guys are great.  They follow, like and comment on many users' stories, are responsive to feedback, reply to comments and seem genuinely blown away by the app's success.  What sets this app apart from Instagram and the other Instagram wannabes, is its ability to draw the reader into an image and the story behind it.  They say a picture speaks a thousand words, but combined, the pictures and the considerably less than a thousand words can convey a real sense of being part of that story.  I've seen snow fall in New York, I've seen a drag artist's transformation, and I've read a moving story of a woman whose mother is transgender. Some have few words and rely on visual impact, while others have a narrative enhanced by the images.  And it works, really well.  It's not trying to compete with Instagram, I don't think it can anyway.  But instead it invites it's fast growing user base to look deeper into the stories behind the images.


I'm now looking at my camera roll in a different way.  Rather than looking at one or two single images to represent a photo taking trip, I'm now looking at the whole series, and the other perfectly good images that wouldn't normally get posted to Instagram for fear of boring everyone with yet another angle of the same famous London landmark (I exaggerate!).  It's early days for the Backspaces team, and I sincerely hope the app's steady development and its inevitable success will continue without too much attention from the 'big boys'.  Not yet anyway.

Debs
10 February 2013