Somewhere along the way, sharing our lives online became almost second nature.
Birthdays, weddings, pregnancies, holidays and even the most ordinary afternoons became moments to photograph, post and share.
For a long time, social media offered a wonderful way to stay connected, celebrate milestones and share the things we loved.
And in many ways, it still does.
But I think something is beginning to shift.
More people seem to be questioning how much of their personal lives they want to make public. Not necessarily because they've stopped enjoying photography, but because they're becoming more conscious of where their images end up, who can access them and how long they might remain online.
The Changing Meaning of Privacy
There was once a time when sharing a photograph meant handing someone a physical print or inviting them to look through a family album.
Today, a single photograph can travel around the world in seconds.
It can be saved, copied, reshared or viewed by people we've never met.
And with developments in artificial intelligence, facial recognition and digital technology, it's understandable that some people are becoming more cautious about the images they put into the world.
For parents, this can mean thinking carefully about the digital footprint they're creating for their children before those children are old enough to make that decision themselves.
For couples and families, it might simply mean wanting certain moments to remain personal.
There's also a growing awareness that we don't have to share every part of our lives to prove that those moments happened.
A Quiet Return to Keeping Things for Ourselves
I find something quite beautiful about this shift.
After years of being encouraged to document and share almost everything, perhaps we're beginning to rediscover the value of keeping some things just for ourselves.
A wedding photograph doesn't need hundreds of likes to be meaningful.
A portrait of your child doesn't need to appear online to be treasured.
And a beautiful moment doesn't become any less important because nobody else witnessed it.
In fact, perhaps the opposite is sometimes true.
There can be something incredibly special about having photographs that belong only to you and the people you love.
Photographs that exist not for an audience, but for remembering.
What This Means for Photography
As a photographer, I think this is an important conversation.
Our industry relies heavily on sharing photographs. Websites, portfolios and social media have become some of the main ways photographers introduce their work to the world.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
But I also believe we need to remember that behind every photograph is a person with their own story, boundaries and reasons for wanting something documented.
The people we photograph aren't simply subjects for our portfolios.
They're individuals who have trusted us to preserve something meaningful.
For me, that means making space for conversations about privacy, consent and how photographs will be used.
Because choosing not to share a photograph doesn't diminish its value.
It simply changes who gets to experience it.
And perhaps, in a world where almost everything can be made public, having something that remains entirely your own is becoming a luxury in itself.
