(Editor’s Note: Words and Photographs by Ryan Tacay)
In a world of instant-gratification and disposable media, it’s hard to take something like instagram as a serious way to share something artistic and long-lasting. Going past the jokes about it being all about the bathroom selfies, things I ate today, or this afternoon’s sunset, it’s actually one of the best ways to get one’s work out there and seen.
For starters, with instagram claiming they have about 300 million active users compared to the 92 million that Flickr has, it’s safe to say that although the images are displayed no larger than a 640×640 pixel square format, there’s a larger audience. Having come from Flickr since 2005, I get more traffic and activity on instagram these days. It has become my preferred method of sharing my street photos.
If you’re like me and despise using your phone or tablet to type and would rather to be at a computer, you can manage your account on a browser using 3rd party viewers like iconosquare.com. This also helps in enlarging photos a bit for you to appreciate the finer details that sometimes get lost when viewing from a mobile device.
Can’t Commit To The Square
I know most of us who shoot with our proprietary cameras will be saying “Gah? Square? I can’t shoot square, who am I, Vivian Maier?” (I wish! ..kinda.?) and yeah, it can be restrictive. Unless you primarily shoot in a square format like a Hasselblad or TLR (twin lens reflex) camera, then it may be tough to wrap your head around how you can crop your images without losing too much of your original frame. Good thing there are apps out there like Square InstaPic (For Android) and Sqauready (For iOS) that allow you to import your images into the confines of the square no matter if you’re shooting in a 3:2 ratio, 4:3 or whatever.
If you prefer not to use your phone to capture images and you want to share shots you’ve taken with your DSLR, mirrorless, or film scans, you can do so easily by uploading your images to Dropbox and importing into other applications like VSCO or Snapseed to edit your photos before uploading to instagram. Recently I’ve been using a program called SendAnywhere to act as a wireless way to simply transfer files from computer to mobile device and vice versa.
Holy Hashtags Batman!
Yes, everyone loathes hashtags ‘cause they’re annoying, and are usually seen as a desperate attempt to get noticed, but in all honesty, there’s merit to using them (properly). As a disclaimer, I’m a huge hashtag whore. ;) Despite the negativity around them, they’re actually a valuable tool in the instagram world. By using street photography related hashtags like #streetphotographers or even #streettogs you’ll be putting your images into the pool with others who mostly, stick to the traditional street aesthetic. Of course you may find the odd picture of someone’s hotdog but for the most part, you’ll be able to both contribute and search for inspiration in this genre by using these types of tags.
Hashtags are also used by hubs, which are accounts created for the sole purpose of featuring various artists on instagram. Think of it like adding your image to a group on Flickr if you’re more familiar with that. These hubs usually create a unique tag for the group that you can attach to your images when you upload so that it can be placed into consideration for their moderators to possibly feature you or your images.
Hubs like @street_photo_club (tag: #street_photo_club) or @mafia_streetlove (tag: #mafia_streetlove) are just a couple examples. Although the aesthetics of these hubs are left to the moderator’s individual taste, it’s still good to engage in this kind of community because you never know what kind of gems you may find while scrolling through the feed.
You won’t really find a hub that’s the equivalency of HCSP (HardCore Street Photography) on Flickr (even soft-core street photography for that matter), but there’s some real good stuff out there.
The benefits of tagging to hubs? If featured, it gives you more ‘exposure’ so people can find your work, and possibly follow you thus giving you more of an audience to share your images, and of course that’s why we upload to social media in the first place right?
As a tip, don’t include hashtags as part of the main caption, throw them into the comments section as they’ll automatically get ‘condensed’ after about 10 comments appear on that image, after which, they won’t be as distracting. Also I should mention that instagram has recently changed the way tags work (won’t get into the specifics) but for them to be most effective, you should tag sooner than later if you want your images to get noticed.
Source Of Inspiration
Although everyone has a certain definition of what street is, I think we all can agree that we know it when we see it. I’d be lying if I said you could fulfill all your inspirational street photography needs through instagram alone.
I personally find that the majority of things you’ll come across that are grouped as ‘street’ is more ‘urban’ in my definition. You’ll encounter more ‘#puddlegrams’ (puddle reflections), ‘little people big world’ (little shadowed silhouettes in big environments), and ‘#strideby’ shots (people walking perfectly flush against a 2D wall – think terminal stance as part of the gait cycle for the healthcare students out there).
These will be amongst the usual vanishing points and literal pictures of the street when you search for “streetphotography”. While these are visually pleasing, it may not be exactly what you’re looking for.
Luckily, I’ve come across one account called @streetphotographers that is continually adding street photographers to its catalogue. I find the shooters featured here keep truer to the genre we have come to recognize as being streetphotography (yours truly, @phraction_street is #22 on that list btw ;).
If you’re looking for some great instagram feeds to follow, this may be your best source, IMO.
Reciprocation
Social media relies heavily on reciprocation and instagram is no different. If you want people to follow, like, comment, you have to do the same. This is a good practice in building an online community because after a while you’ll have ‘regulars’ browsing through your feed, offering praise and words of encouragement, and through ‘instameets’ you may have the chance to meet the people behind the avatar.
I personally hardly attend those things because when out shooting street; I can never socialize and properly focus on my shooting at the same time. Also the thought of a large group of people hitting the streets with cameras in hand does nothing good for the stealth aspect of street (if that’s your technique). But hey, if you like being a part of a photog posse, then props to ya.
This practice of being social on a social media application is both good and bad. Good in the sense that you get that warm and fuzzy feeling of appreciation when all these notifications come in regarding the latest photo you have posted, but bad in the sense that you’ll rarely have anything but positive things in your feed.
You might wonder why that’s such a bad thing, but if you’re looking for honest creative criticism on your work to help you grow as a photographer, you’ll rarely find it on instagram. Positive vibes is the name of the game and it all goes back to reciprocity. You get what you dish out and most people just want that pat on the back and to hear they took a good photo and that people appreciate it.
This is perfectly fine! With many users being the average snapshooter, it’s not always in everyone’s interests to hear anything but nice things because after all, instagram is meant to be a simple social application to share instantaneous snaps between friends and sometimes friends just won’t tell you how it really is because, feelings.
Conclusion
I could go on about the little facets of the instagram world, but with how things are constantly changing in that application, it’s best to try to adapt as we go along.
Same goes with the vessels we use to share our work. Instagram might not be the be-all and end-all in street photo sharing but it’s one way to get some quick inspiration since people seem to post more frequently on there.
If you can look past the feet on the beach, rainbow of HDR while looking out a window plane, scroll through screencaps of text conversations and overhead latte art or baristas spelling your name wrong, then you might just be able to find some really good street photography out there. I’d say it’s worth checking out even for an instant.. (I’ll get my coat.)
But first, let me take a…
