If you are looking for a place besides Instagram to post your images, then we’ve got just what you need. Years ago, we wrote a guide for photographers on finding communities. And consider this an update of sorts. These are the best communities for photographers in 2025 — you can think of them as anti-social media in some ways.
A Word About Community
I needed to take a pause and inhale through the nose, and exhale partially through the mouth before I typed this. The reason why is because I know for a fact that it’s going to be seen as a very controversial thing.
To me, community is a small society of people who work together to help one another. It is not pay-walled, and it also means that everyone does their part and even trying to go above and beyond. With that said, I think that the word community has been distorted in modern vernacular by marketing people. To that end, we use it as a word that almost seems like it’s brainless.
Instagram isn’t a community: no one helps one another. It’s a messaging platform.
Facebook isn’t a community, but it has aspects that make it much more so than Instagram.
Reddit is a community because people often help one another for free with minimal advertising methods.
Your local camera club isn’t a community: it’s often pay-walled and therefore it is a special congregation of sorts.
Your church is a community: you don’t have to donate to keep it alive.
Community for photographers is, therefore, a place where photographers:
- Can find gigs
- Collaborate and message one another
- Give each other feedback in meaningful and constructive ways that aren’t meant to boost an algorithm
- Isn’t dependant on the attention economy
With that said, I’ve been using several communities for years. Back in 2022, I wrote an article about just that. But as time has gone on and I’ve pledged to be off of social media, my thoughts have changed.
So here are the best communities for photographers: all of which have a free option for you.
VSCO
- What is it?: VSCO is a fairly old platform in the space of social media. I wouldn’t call it social media these days. It has been around for well over a decade and was originally really known for its solid film-looking presets. But they’ve expanded beyond that. They offer Spaces for photographers to talk to one another, but there isn’t a whole lot of good feedback because of the Instagram mentality of so many these days. There’s also Hub — which gets photographers gigs as well as licensing deals. And there’s so many other products they offer too. Oh, and you can turn your profile into an actual website too!
- How Do They Make Money?: If you’re not paying the monthly fees, they serve you ads both on the desktop and in the app. You can also buy presets from them.
- What Makes it Unique for Photographers?: There aren’t many platforms that actively work to try to get photographers licensing deals and that have special challenges, places for people to comment, and that find ways for photographers to improve their portfolios.
Behance
- What is it?: Behance is Adobe’s own social media platform. It isn’t just for photographers. Designers are there as well. People looking for photographers can post gigs here too. Mostly, it’s a place to really showcase true creative potential.
- How Do They Make Money?: It’s part of Adobe, which means that it’s more or less subsidized by them. But you can join for free. There are paid options, however.
- What Makes it Unique for Photographers?: Photographers can really showcase their work in a way that is really just about making the photographs look good as well as post about new and recent projects. It isn’t based on the attention economy either.
Flickr
- What is it?: Flickr is one of the oldest photography communites meant specifically for photographers. After a while, it became a place for people to store iPhone images. Then things changed. It was bought and sold many times over. Today, it’s still a great place for photographers to share common interests.
- How Do They Make Money?: There are ads if you’re a free user. Otherwise, you can pay for a Pro membership.
- What Makes it Unique for Photographers?: It’s one of the best places to get actual critiques about your images.
