9 Instagram Accounts You Really Should Be Following
This winter, Aperture Foundation staff members offer up their favorite photography-related handles on Instagram. Ranging from online collectives to museum publicists, here are nine accounts well worth your scrolling time.
Kimberly Drew works as online community producer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but her personal Instagram account is the one worth following. In a world where the art historical canon is dominated by whiteness and the institutional effacement of black experiences is the status quo, Drew has created a space where black artists are given the recognition they deserve. Her feed is a mixture of personal experiences, works by contemporary black artists, and historical photographs with thoughtful captions. —Becca Imrich, Education Work Scholar
Inspired by the “overview effect,” a sensation that astronauts have when viewing the Earth as a whole, Benjamin Grant founded The Daily Overview, so that “people can fully appreciate the beauty and intricacy of the things we’ve constructed, the sheer complexity of the systems we’ve developed, or the devastating impact that we’ve had on our planet.” In the individualized, selfie-centric environment of Instagram, The Daily Overview provides a much-needed step back through its stunning geometric images. — Annika Klein, Editorial Work Scholar
Daniel Featherstone is a New York street photographer who focuses on the characters inhabiting the intersection of 57th Street and 5th Avenue. His photos are lit using the surrounding reflective architecture, and his Instagram feed is full of just-glimpsed, poignant, and wryly funny moments of people alone in a crowded city. — Mark O’Neil, Web Manager
Londoner Dolly Brown’s Instagram stream investigates art exhibitions, the architecture of the spaces they inhabit, and the audiences who frequent them. Accompanying her minimalist shots are thoughtful captions detailing Brown’s interpretation of the artworks and where to find them. Ranging from the St. Giles Cripplegate Church to a private viewing of the British Museum, Brown offers fresh insight to these highly documented locations. — Sita Fidler, Digital Media Work Scholar
No format is more perfect for LA-based photographer Mike Slack, who co-runs the indie publishing house the Ice Plant with Tricia Gabriel. His photobooks Ok Ok Ok, Scorpio, and Pyramids are each a sequence of Polaroids; with Polaroid film increasing in price, Instagram is the new Polaroid. Snap it, post it, like it. Caption-less, highly saturated, geometric meditations on everyday life leave me looking at the world around us differently. —Nicole Maturo, Aperture Magazine Work Scholar
LagosPhoto, the first and only international photography festival in Nigeria, has grown significantly in the past few years, attracting attention from curators and artists all over the world. The most recent edition, presented in fall 2015, was curated by the artist Cristina de Middel. LagosPhoto’s Instagram feed is a great way to keep up to date with exciting images by numerous contemporary photographers working in Africa. —Giada De Agostinis, Communications Specialist
It’s a self-explanatory premise—photographers photographing their loved ones—but founder Lindley Warren curates the project’s Instagram posts in a way that pushes the boundaries of a timeless and seemingly simple subject. The images range from traditional notions of domestic documentation to photographs by artists such as Natalie Krick, which fall more into the category of a “vajazzled” Lynchian nightmare. Anyone is welcome to submit. — Madison Carroll, Library and Archive Work Scholar
Photographer Pat O’Rourke’s Instagram feed is a mixture of candid and cleverly crafted scenes of everyday life. Posts are often non-sequiturs, and there isn’t one specific aesthetic maintained throughout. The result is a consistently surprising stream of images that stand out from all the Insta-noise. — Max Mikulecky, Digital Marketing Assistant
One of my favorite photographers, Chris Verene, is finally on Instagram! His signature, colorful medium-format images of generations of his family and friends in small town Illinois, taken over the past thirty years, are a refreshing addition to my feed. While most photographers post current projects and moments on Instagram, I like that Verene has been using the site to share an archive of his work. — Elena Tarchi, Publicity and Events Associate
