Instagram, an app that a large portion of the Choate student body uses, usually consists of feeds with selfies, snapshots of delicious desserts, and artistic photographs of the beach. Though Instagram was created for amateur photographers to upload their photographs and share them with a community, recently, a group of photographers decided to change what is considered the norm and begin a movement. Instead of sharing meals and vacation photos, they used Instagram to document under-represented communities. Their accounts are filled with photographs of people in these communities, along with their pets, their homes, and their families.
These accounts aim to showcase people usually forgotten and highlight the diversity of the world’s communities. In order to raise awareness about these accounts, Getty Images teamed up with Instagram to give photographers a $10,000 grant and the opportunity to learn from notable photographers. More than 1,200 entries from photographers in 190 different countries applied, and the winners were Ismail Ferdous of Bangladesh, Adriana Zehbrauskas of Brazil, and Dmitry Markov of Russia. You can find their work through their Instagram accounts, which are @afterranaplaza, @dcim.ru, and @adrianazehbrauskas.
On campus there were a variety of reactions to these photographs. Ibrahima Mbaye ’16, one of the heads of Choate Photography Club, had a mixed reaction. “The ideas and intentions behind the movement are good,” he said, adding, “Photography always holds a certain risk of portraying things in a different light than what is true in reality. The very concept of photography is that you take a picture and in that very picture you are showing the audience what you want them to see, and in doing that you are excluding parts of the bigger picture. This makes me worry about the ability to photograph these people without inaccurately portraying communities.”
Namsai Sethpornpong ’17, another head of the Choate Photography Club, liked the idea. “It is so cool that there are photographers who use social media as a tool to raise social awareness.”
The use of photography with the intention to make a difference is not a foreign concept to Rebecca Bernstein ’16, the third head of Choate Photography Club and someone who has also made an impact through photography. Bernstein was first introduced to service through photography during her sophomore year on Choate Community Service day, when, instead of packing meals, she took pictures. Inspired by that event, she paired up with Ms. Pashley, Choate’s Director of Community Service, and photographed community service events in Wallingford.
Bernstein said, “Through my project, I think people saw that Choate and Wallingford have a mutually beneficial relationship, and that there are a lot of people in town and a lot of ways to get involved.”
The use of photography in order to benefit the community is remarkable, and photographers—both at Choate and in the world—are taking a step in the right direction.
