Goodbye, Flickr
I've been on Flickr for almost 14 years, since moving to China in 2006. It's become a diary of my first trying the camera, using post-processing and collage, trying analog photography, exploring old neighborhoods, playing with expired film stock, antique cameras and a telescope, developing and scanning negatives at home, and finally moving away from photography toward archival research, writing and publishing. More importantly, through comments and FlickrMail, I've met wonderful people who became my friends and collaborators in real life!
Though I stopped posting new photos, I've grown so used to tags, albums and collections that I still occasionally visit the website and look up my own and others' images. But now that the ugly capital is driving the nail in the coffin and the Flickr shutdown is imminent, it's time to pack up and go. I'm not renewing the Pro account, and from March 8 all my photos except for the last 1000 will be deleted.