Vision Slightly Blurred artwork

How the Kids Are Learning Photography on TikTok

Vision Slightly Blurred

English - March 09, 2020 11:00 - 22 minutes - 15.7 MB - ★★★★ - 38 ratings
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TikTok, the video-based social media app, usually conjures visions of teens mimicking the latest dance craze, but it's probably better described as short attention span YouTube. In 2017, ByteDance, the Chinese-owned parent company of TikTok, acquired the Musical.ly app, which had gained a toehold with an under-18 demographic by becoming a replacement for the comedy-oriented Vine app along with a burgeoning lip synching community.

Although the app still skews heavily towards music, it has predictably evolved as a youth-oriented, generic video delivery platform. As such, a whole gaggle of teen photographers has emerged as "experts" – delivering pop song-soundtracked mini-tutorials that are largely devoid of narration.

On this week's episode of the PhotoShelter podcast Vision Slightly Blurred, @sarahjake and @allen3m discuss how TikTok is helping inspire a new crop of photographers.