My endless scroll down my instagram feed was brought to an abrupt halt on Thursday evening. Amidst the blurry selfies of my school friends, exhibitionist shots of ‘food porn’ and the inevitable hipster photos of industrial city scenery, I spied the shots of Nick Knight, famous fashion photographer for Vogue. He recently uploaded some photos of the ‘roses from his garden’, which he certainly didn’t just ‘slap a filter’ on. If you don’t follow his already, you should.
I know this is not really the reason anyone uses instagram, but on my daily perusal of the Guardian online it appeared that a low-scale instaRevolution is afoot. Danny Last, Gallery Editor at In Bed With Maradona, has been lauded by critics for his photographs of football fans from across Europe; in the fashion world, the instagram feeds of bloggers such as Susie Lau are changing the way people look at fashion. Instagram might not be just for shots of your cat.
So here are my three favourites to follow:
1) As mentioned above, Nick Knight’s feed (@showstudio_nick_knight) features a range of subjects from his everyday life. His ability to see the potential in habitual objects, to make every moment a potential ‘photo opportunity’ makes him well worth following.
2) Kyle Steed (@kylesteed) is a big name on Instagram, having amassed over half a million followers. His ‘purist’ shots don’t use filters or special camera apps, but instead are thoughtfully composed and well framed. There’s not a blurry selfie in sight here.
3) Artist Ai Wei Wei reinvents the selfie on his Instagram (@aiww). As you would expect from the Chinese dissident, shots of him just going about his daily life take on an interesting artistic turn. The shots of his cats refrain (somehow) from being just another ‘cat of instagram’. Photos of his feline companions are well worth checking out.
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