Although I had fun playing with the Instagram ap on my iPhone during my recent UK trip, I have to admit feeling slightly apprehensive about taking the phenomenon too seriously within artistic practice. Aesthetically speaking, Instagram and it’s predecessor, Hipstamatic, seem to follow in the footsteps of the Lomo, the analog camera with numerous incarnations at the center of the Lomographic Society, which professes a motto of “Don’t think, just shoot.”
Unlike the Lomo however, Instagram produces digital images well suited for social media platforms whose users demand instant gratification. It’s easy to take a shot, apply jazzy, retro-looking filters and share the results over a variety of social networking services in seconds flat.
A recent New Yorker article has this to say about the Instagram phenomenon:
“Instagram’s “Most Popular” feed is filled with sunsets over cities and beaches and points in between. It might be said, though, that all Instagrammed photos emphasize photography as an elegiac or twilight art, one that rushes and fakes the emotion of old photographs by cutting out the wait for history entirely, and giving something just a few seconds old the texture of time. We are creating a kind of instant nostalgia for moments that never quite were.”
10 yrs ago this wouldve been considered witchcraft .. i grewup in the fotomat generation … dropoff yr film .. seeya in a week .. now you can instantly photograph/edit/post anything you want to whatever blog/socMedia deal you have wired into..instagram is one of those hot props thatll fade away but stays in the toolbox .. i think itll get SUPER retro with filters that mimic the 70s/80s ..
I great. I can’t wait for 80’s and 90’s filters that are considered retro. Talk about how to make a body feel old! I guess that time really is already upon us.
Oh great, not I great. Oy!!