Behind the Scenes at Instagram

Love it or hate it, social media has taken over many of our lives. And in the case of a photographic life, no social media name reigns more supreme than Instagram. With its photo dependent backbone and emphasis on visuals over verbals, shutterbugs rush to the app either as a means of expression, or a means of impression. It’s the one single place where your posts have an equal opportunity of being seen by a stranger in a small remote village as by a photo editor in the slightly larger village of Manhattan.

It definitely doesn’t come without faults. A decidedly “generous” view of intellectual property rights. A potentially morally ambiguous tendency of taking the best aspects of other social media platforms and claiming the invention as their own. The oft experienced horror of finding the diligently planned, obsessively prepared photographic masterpieces that emerge from our cameras “reinterpreted” by a fellow user with a bit of time to kill and a yen for Instagram filters.

But like a trip to the doctor, like it or not, Instagram is a fact of life.

In this interview with Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, PBS anchor Judy Woodruff goes behind the scenes at the office of the social media giant. They discuss the company’s exponential growth, business philosophy, and challenges. Where the company has come from as well as where it’s headed in the future. They even find time to address the company’s habit of appropriating other platform’s technology into their own.

Whether you’re using Instagram as a rolling portfolio, a repository for personal work, or simply to show off your cat’s impressive agility, it’s worth taking a moment to pull back the curtain and see how the gears are made to turn.

Lesson one for success in combat, know the battlefield. So check out the interview and go behind the scenes of one of the most influential organizations in the photographic world today.