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Comment by msutherl | Hacker News Reader

Indeed these photos and the techniques are gimmicky – basically amateur/advertising-level work, or a kind of soulless copy of mid-20th century minimalism. If you want to take good photographs, study actual fine artists, not blogs. Stay away from Flickr. Follow actual contemporary artists on Instagram. However, if you want to make backdrops for hipster startup home pages, then by all means.

Some resources:

- any 'History of Western Art' book

- any 'History of Photography' book

- http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/category/exhibitions/

- http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/photography/

- http://www.art21.org/artists

- http://www.vvork.com/

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If I seriously wanted to learn about photography, I wouldn't look at instagram (over-saturation, higher contrast... in other words, a lack of subtlety). That sounds much more akin to backdrops for hipster startup home pages and blogs.

If I wanted to take good photographs, I would practice photography a whole lot. Then read a little bit. Then practice a whole lot. Then read a little bit.

Reading about photography can never match the practice of photography (but it can help... a little bit). I would also shoot film (many in photography school talk about the "film mindset"). You need to believe that your photos are a limited resource and therefore save each shot for the best moments. "Spraying and praying" with digital rarely comes out with anything good.

And now for some shameless self promotion: www.stillthrill.com

> If I seriously wanted to learn about photography, I wouldn't look at instagram (over-saturation, higher contrast... in other words, a lack of subtlety). That sounds much more akin to backdrops for hipster startup home pages and blogs.

I won't argue that there's a lack of subtlety in Instagram, but I wish you wouldn't brush it off so contemptuously. I don't consider myself much of a photographer, mainly due to lack of practice/desire to practice. But I like Instagram because I can take a picture of something my friends will find funny, a car that another friend will find interesting, or something I can tell a story about. I find that my Instagrams end up being higher quality pictures, more consistenly, than pictures I take just for the sake of taking a picture. So for me Instagram isn't just pictures, it's pictures that I can tell a story about, when I whip my phone out at a party. A different art form altogether.

I could agree with that. I use instagram as well and like it for the reasons you mentioned. But what your hitting upon is that it's not necessarily photography, but more a social experience. As you put it:

>A different art form altogether.

So I don't think it should be categorized as photography. And you mentioned that looking at it was a good way to learn how to be a photographer. Which I still don't think it is.

The greatest photographers (those who we should be studying) did not use instagram. And for the highly skilled contemporaries that do use instagram, I highly doubt they post their best on the service.

Here's a collection of some favorite images from my Instagram feed over the last 9 months or so: http://x.are.na/SekSZPT. I'm not sure if you would find them un-subtle, but they are certainly on the whole neither over-saturated nor overly contrasty.

Edit: seems Arena is having this content loading bug again. If you click on the grey blocks, there's an overly and you can step through like a presentation.

Do you have some Instagram usernames of good photographers?

Some of my friends / friends-of-friends:

- http://instagram.com/msutherl (me)

- http://instagram.com/wenjunliang

- http://instagram.com/alex_steckly

- http://instagram.com/timothytickle

- http://instagram.com/nycisa

- http://instagram.com/rdriana

- http://instagram.com/xt_marie

- http://instagram.com/rypat

Easy to find more by seeing who likes these images or by seeing who these people follow.

http://instagram.com/joemcnallyphoto/

I assume that is just where he posts some fun throw-away pics.

Thanks!

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