Last year, my husband and I traveled to Greece. While we were in Athens, we could not avoid crossing paths with the same couple at every sightseeing location we went to. I must have seen the entire wardrobe of the girl during those hours we walked. Her eccentric wardrobe change was not the only thing that caught my attention. It was rather strange to witness an all dressed-up girl posing alone non-stop. To me, it was definitely meant for social media.
Just recently, I came across an account on Instagram and Facebook that took me back to my holidays in Greece. This account was dedicated to men who take photos of their girlfriends, and it went viral today. From around 22,000 followers, it reached more than 30,000 followers in less than half of a day; and by the time I am writing this short article, it already attracted 1,000 more people.
Usually, we are so focused on the photos we see and the person who is in the picture that we totally ignore the person who was behind the lens. Nowadays, you will come across thousands of Instagram accounts with remarkable selfies. But what does it really take to have such photos?
Sure, many of the images are inspired by the famous FollowMeTo project.
How are you going to tell you had a one-hour jog in the morning or beach yoga today?
Who will be there anytime you need to take your best beach-body picture if not your boyfriend?
This is like a glimpse in the keyhole of a closed door, making us realize what we see in photos is not always a perfect reality. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this hype. I am not a conservative person, but is it worth spending those remarkable moments with a beloved one to create a distorted reality for the rest of the world? The answer is definitely subjective. How do you spend the time given to you and your better half?
I think it's kind of sad...I witnessed something similar recently on a trip to Curacao. A couple were taking multiple selfies (talk about shooting 100's of frames to get one shot" over and over again. They got mad at each other for not "nailing" that key shot. The female stormed off in a temper tantrum and came back 20 minutes later and stated "are you going to work harder to get it right or what?" to the guy...
Ironically, they were in an absolutely magical part of the island but didn't seem to care...it was all about capturing that epic shot for Instagram so they could fake being happy etc.
An entire fake life built around taking selfies in some of the most beautiful places...just for show.
Sad.
I'll take 1000s of picture of my girlfriend willingly when on vacation.
The second she hands me her fucking iphone and asks me for something to go on instagram, I'll bail.
I can't stand those "look at me" people...
then your girlfriend is safe having a down to earth person around ;)
Safe is a big word. I have MANY other flaws! hahaha
To be fair to them for all you know Instagram is their career or a major part of it, and then obviously portraying a perfect lifestyle can get stressful.
LOL...there is no perfect lifestyle. Remove that from the equation.
Those two were bickering like cats and dogs. If IG is their career...God help them.
At any rate my point wasn't their professional disposition. My issue was that so much of these IG people are straight up fake, selling themselves as carefree, glamorous etc....rich and that sucks.
I think all should be balanced. Surely there are some people who earn via Instagram by being a spokesperson or just a face of their brand or something, but that's different. It is like making a campaign for a product. But what comes to faking the whole life and those amazing years let us to have our youth - that's a shame:
PS: look at my reply to Simon.
I was on a tour in China last year and one of the women in the group kept asking the rest of us to take pics of her in each scene. Her husband was also with her on the tour, but I doubt you'd know it from looking at her photos! It sure seemed weird.
you know, I faced the same thing in Santorini, Greece, a place everyone is crazy about. Imagine bride and groom: bride is all in white bridal dress and the groom is running around to take photos how they had a wedding in Santorini. Clearly it was not a wedding we think of having. There was no ceremony, nothing, just a fake representation. Obviously it was not for some editorial, just them both and for sure they came as a couple to marry there. There is a charm in getting into adventures together, but faking what as not real, really? so when u look back at those pictures what are you going to remember?
The wedding faking was an extreme. Meanwhile we enjoyed our best vacation with my husband.
I don't even take my "bigger camera" while travelling with family. Enjoying the real moments taking some snapshots is all it takes to create real memories ;)
I guess each to their own - the "bride" shots in Santorini wouldn't be my cup of tea, either. I wonder what response they received from the people they showed the photos to?
I don't take my "bigger camera" on family trips either. It took me ages to realise it, but photography is actually quite an antisocial activity unless it is undertaken with other photographers. The advent of super thin cameras that are convenient to keep in the pocket (and can be occasionally used to make phone calls, too) definitely helps to keep a small record of great family times, though.
As someone that does photography as a hobby I like bringing my camera on vacations and taking quite a bit of images, however there are some limits..I try to experience the location before I start shooting for example. It kinda comes in second hand after the experience.
Like now I just spent a week skiing, I took out my camera and took some quick shots max 3-5 times a day so I quickly could do back to skiing because that is purley awesome. However I saw a lot of people taking more "show off" images. (Just search for the skii resorts hashtag on IG and youll see it as everyone tags it beacuse its a "cool" location.). Personally I shot some landscape stuff and some powder shots which is so fun.
Aren't we taking this too seriously? We all wants memories and most of us want/need/like to share them and meybe feel or let feel someone else a bit special/pretty/interesting. Photography itself is a show off of people of nature, of things, of technique... is it only allowed and accepted if it comes from a professional photographer?
All faked and staged. Has nothing to do with a professional or amateur photographer. No one said anything when people take photos for their family album with nature and themselves in it but when doing this faking for Instagram - it´s another story.
And boy do they take it seriously!