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The Truth Behind Instagram

Tuesday 22 September 2015

I came across this photographer last week, Chompoo Baritone from Thailand, who's taken these seriously relatable set of photos called The Truth Behind Instagram. Seriously how relatable are some of these photos? That Instagram worthy photo you posted yesterday, did it look something like this outside of the frame? If you've done this at least once raise your hand! I know my set ups sometimes look a tiny bit like this.



Okay so I know a few Instagrammers that might have that perfect life that they have on screen but I know most of us don't. It goes back to that saying 'you can't judge yourself against others when you only see their highlights reel and you're living the entire documentary'. A few days ago I was talking to Angela from astylecollector over Instagram in awe of the amazing food she's been posting lately comparing it to my regular boring food I'm eating when she replies saying 'only the pretty ones end up on Instagram'. It made me realise I did it again, I'm always comparing myself to everyone and everything and I shouldn't. That's what I like about this, Baritone expresses that every day people snap pictures in a way to reinvent themselves, to make themselves seem better, when in reality it's fake. Careful cropping and filtering can make mundane situations seem extraordinary. Since when did we need to see photos of other people's food before Instagram? Remember that time when people would post anything and everything on Instagram without considering how it was framed or if the lighting was good? Now our Instagrams are like a wall in an art gallery, perfect framing, cropping and editing. Some of us even theme our Instagrams and won't post a photo if it doesn't suit their theme!

I'm not dissing Instagram by any means, I love it, I spend hours scrolling my feed staring at the glorious photos, it inspires me! Also I know that most of you guys reading this aren't fake, creating new versions of yourselves to parade online. Sometimes I personally need to take a step back and realise that Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc are all people's highlights reel, and I'm not seeing the whole movie so there's no way I can review and compare it to my own life. In real life too, I'm currently in the process of trying to get an internship for summer and boy is it harder than what they make it seem on The Internship. I'm constantly comparing myself to other people I've seen at the same meetings as me and I just can't help myself but think they're so much better and talented, why am I even bothering? But it's the same as Chompoo Baritone is trying to say, their just selling themselves with their best qualities and I should be too!

This was meant to be another artist loving post but hey it got a little deep, but it's what I needed to hear at this moment in time so maybe it's what someone else needs to hear too!



*All photos are from Chompoo Baritone's Facebook page, check out her other works on there too!
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