When Vesa posted his view on online identities and hiding behind an artistic identity he touched upon a most interesting subject. A subject that obviously resonates with most of us as the comments were instant. Mike added his story (a completely different angle, traumatizing the Balakov family with LEGO images for generations to come) and I can only add my own, different angle to it as well.
When Vesa mentions in his post the fear for the unknown, the secret identity awaiting peer feedback it all made me think back to our discussions we had earlier on coming out of the closet and the discussions about the human behind the 4cm tall little plastic guy called Me2.
As I (read Boris, not Me2) explained before, I started sharing LEGO photography in serious quantities on my personal feed (both on IG, Flickr, Blogger and Facebook) a good year before Me2 was born. I was not afraid to share my passion for plastic and I have never hidden behind an alias.
My drivers were completely different.
As a creative professional and human being my interests are pretty wide, they range from my day to day duties in a Big Inc. corporation to photography to exploring Swedish and Earths Nature with family and friends. And it includes shooting plastic.
Not as a side note, but as a dedicated track within that larger passion I have with photography. I was flooding my general #channel with imagery that was occasionally appreciated by my friends, but not everyone was thrilled about it.
The time was right in 2011 for me to give Me2 the room he needed, his own dedicated IG, free from my odd family picture or HDR exploits on my personal account, free from my FB feed and personal blog where I jump from one topic to other, free from all the distractions, focused on plastic only. Focused so Me2 could grow. Grow within me, without me being a bottleneck.
So, I think I am the opposite of Avanaut. I created the character of Me2 on purpose after I discovered I liked shooting plastic equally as much as Vesa did when he came out of the closet. I created my box to stay focused, a creative project called Me2.
In my opinion, whatever your take regarding an online identity, be it your own name or a uniquely crafted identity that fits your personal needs, the most important thing to remember above all else is that you need to enjoy doing it.
It needs to be about having fun, as that is what shooting plastic is all about. Having Fun !
Boris
