Copying trends is an easy trap to get caught in. We look for the easy path. We see someone be successful and think that by copying that style we can be as successful too. Copying trends does nothing to move us forward as creators. We learn nothing new. We dilute our output by making all our images look like everyone else's. Eventually our photographs become lazy and hollow, devoid of real meaning. Social media accelerates this race to be the same. The "algorithm" turns what could be a gloriously inventive and expressively rich format into a homogeneous gloop of saccharine façades. Disposable content created for a popularity contest that can never be won.
I use analogue mediums so that I can be connected to the process of creating a photograph. By not following trends I choose to explore the world I live in.
"The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies," The Aeneid, Book VI, lines 126-129