A new photography platform has arrived. Chronological, ad-free, and uncropped.

Reclaim your feed

Why We’re Building Foto

We believe photography deserves better.

Better than disappearing behind video.

Better than being compressed, cropped, or pushed into algorithmic irrelevance.

Better than platforms built for attention, not connection.

Foto is our response — and our vision.

It’s not just an app.

It’s a movement to reclaim photography’s dignity, beauty, and emotional power.

It’s a tool, a gallery, a journal, a community.

Built slowly. Designed with care. Funded by you — not venture capital.

We’re Bootstrapped on Purpose

We’re a small team: just a couple of builders, a part-time designer, and a global community.

We’ve chosen to bootstrap Foto because we believe ownership matters — and not just ours.

When you take venture capital, you don’t just get money. You get pressure: to grow fast, to pivot, to optimize for profits above people. And if you don’t? You risk losing control of the very thing you started.

That’s not the future we want.

We want Foto to be owned by the community, not by a boardroom or billionaire.

So instead of asking investors for money, we invite you.

Supporters. Subscribers. Ambassadors.

You are our funding model — and our reason for building this in the first place.

With your help, we grow.

As more people support us, we can hire more help, build faster, and do more.

But we’ll always do it on your terms, not Wall Street’s.

Design Is Not Decoration

We believe design is the product.

Every click. Every screen. Every scroll.

We obsess over it — because good design makes people feel something.

Foto is intentionally designed to evoke a sense of calm, clarity, and humanity.

We don’t chase trends or dark patterns.

We don’t shove reels or infinite video loops in your face.

We give you space — to share, to reflect, to connect.

Yes, that kind of thoughtfulness takes time.

But that’s the point.

We’re not rushing to “scale.”

We’re building a home.

We Listen, Constantly

Every feature we build starts with a conversation.

You tell us what’s missing, what’s broken, what could be better — and we listen.

Not just to the loudest voices, but to the thoughtful ones.

We take feedback seriously, weigh it carefully, and let it guide the roadmap.

We don’t hide behind press releases or corporate silence.

We’re in the comments.

In the messages.

In the trenches with you — because we are here to serve you.

Foto isn’t just built for the Foto community.

It’s built with the Foto community.

Everyone Takes Photos — So Everyone Belongs

We believe photography isn’t just for professionals.

It’s for parents. For travelers. For artists. For friends. For memory-keepers and meaning-makers.

For anyone who’s ever held up a phone or camera and said, “Look at this.”

That’s why Foto is a big tent.

If you’re a working photographer with a portfolio, there’s a place for you here.

If you’re just someone who wants to share photos with your mom in a quiet, private way, you belong here too.

Foto is not about clout.

It’s about connection.

This Is Just the Beginning

We’re focused on building the best software product we can.

Clean, respectful, fast. With thoughtful discovery. A true chronological feed. Zero ads.

But our vision is bigger than code.

We imagine a world where Foto hosts meetups, exhibitions, and zines.

Where we elevate photography as art, memory, and resistance — not content.

We’re not there yet.

First, we need to grow a little.

Hire a little.

Earn your trust.

Keep building.

But we believe that if we do this the right way — with honesty, clarity, and care —

then we can build something powerful. Together.

Reclaim Your Feed. Reclaim Photography.

Foto is an experiment in trust, design, and community.

It will take time, but we think it’s worth it.

And if you do too — we’d love for you to be a part of it.

Upcoming
Pro Features

  • We want to challenge the concept of where your best work lives. It makes sense to us that your curated work should also live where your audience is. The upcoming Portfolio feature will reduce the friction of people needing to leave one place and go to another to see your very best work.

  • We want to give all artists and businesses an online shop directly within their profile to sell prints, books, art, education, and anything else you can imagine.

  • Think Substack or Patreon, but all within the Foto App. Connect deeper with your biggest fans or teach people how to reach new heights through online education.

  • Instead of having to pay for a 3rd party piece of software to schedule posts, we plan on building a Post Scheduler directly into the Foto interface. This will be great for accounts that have social media managers or people that want to schedule posts ahead of time, freeing up their time.

  • This will be integrated into the Shop, but we are huge believers in the importance of print. We want to help photographers and artists easily sell more prints through Print Fulfillment, so they can use their time making art not being a print lab.

  • We feel like this is an obvious feature. If you are already uploading your work to Foto, we want to be able to double down by giving you the features to securely store your hi-res files in a private archive that will be fully searchable and properly cataloged.

Let’s Build Together

While we are developing Foto, we want to connect with you and get honest feedback.

Join the Foto Substack to receive updates on the latest progress and to help us build an app that will rethink the new wave of social platforms.

 FAQs

  • Foto is for anyone who wants to share photographs and images online. We are not building Foto to be a place where only photographers talk to photographers.

  • No. We are not allowing any videos on Foto and we are opposed to building an ad-based business model. We believe it leads to attention farming and a horrible user experience.

  • Foto will always have a high-quality free tier so anyone can freely use Foto. We will have optional Pro Features for the segment of users who want to take their account to the next level. Over time, we will be introducing such features as a Portfolio, Shop, Paid Subscriber Area, and more.

  • We plan on releasing the desktop version of Foto in 2025, Lists, Multiple Images per Post, DMs, Capturing Image Metadata, and Powerful Search Features.

  • You can manage your Foto Ambassador Subscription at Ambassador Portal

  • To minimize file compression and resizing on Foto, use the following recommended file settings.

    1820 px on the long side at 72 ppi in sRGB

    Ideal File Types: JPEG or PNG

    We compress the image quality from 100% down to 80%. This helps reduce file size, which saves on cloud computing fees and provides faster loading.

    We tested various compression settings and found that we could achieve this level without significant banding appearing for the vast majority of photos.