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The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

hyperallergic.com

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Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#2
How many millions of people are posting on Instagram? How many billions of photos are on Instagram now?

Is it really so crazy to think that all of those billions of photos, you can find groupings of 12 that are similarly composed? How many unique photos are there to take really?

I'd be way more impressed if you could somehow come up with a set of a billion photos such that there are no compositional groupings across the set. Earth only has so many types of things on it to photograph.

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#4
I feel the the homogeneity is a result of what they’re looking for - people sharing pictures of their vacations are not the same as people trying to be “influencers”.

I don’t think any of the travel pictures I see on Instagram of shared albums on Mac/iOS are like these. But then I’m not following influencers, I’m following friends and family (travel photos), and dogs (no travel photos, but definitely dogs)

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#5
Trust HN commenters to call into question the (perfectly reasonable) premise of the article.

The fact that Instagram is visual, not drably textual like HN, shouldn't really prevent anyone from discerning the fact that there's a significant amount of imitation, cliché, and trendy conformity in the images people post.

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#8
loosely related, but here is an amazing project by Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom (20 years in the making) that explores the topic of 'homogeneity': https://www.citylab.com/design/2014/12/20-years-of-photos-sh...

(the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714867152)

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#9

loosely related, but here is an amazing project by Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom (20 years in the making) that explores the topic of 'homogeneity': https://www.citylab.com/design/2014/12/20-years-of-photos-sh... (the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714867152 )

...and even more amazing one by Ari Versluis (also Dutch): http://www.exactitudes.com

Re: The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

#10
post #2

How many millions of people are posting on Instagram? How many billions of photos are on Instagram now? Is it really so crazy to think that all of those billions of photos, you can find groupings of 12 that are similarly composed? How many unique photos are there to take really? I'd be way more impressed if you could somehow come up with a set of a billion photos such that there are no compositional groupings across…

If you take photos to remember something then you can have a lot of unique photos. While everyone else is chasing the perfect photo you'll have something that is actually true to the memory.
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