Getting started with Instagram

A few weeks ago I created an Instagram account for EXCONMED. I will be blogging about it every month to document my experience and progress. This will not be a guide on how to get Instagram famous or get likes, it will only strictly be me documenting my experience starting a new Instagram account.

Instagram has been an interesting topic in the photography world. For millennial like us, Instagram equals to photography. There are a lot of reason to take a photo but in today's world taking a photo and post it on IG is the most reasonable one. And a lot of us mistaken for being Instagram famous is equal to being a "photographer". In the upcoming zine "I was once there" I made a series of photographs about this topic.

I've started using Instagram since it got out and it has changed enormously. For me Instagram has always been a social media app for me to share my life with family and friends, followers and likes are not my priority for choosing what photo to post. A few years ago, I started my photo account which is an account I wanted to use for my photo life, behind the scenes shots of the projects that I am working on, things I see interesting on the street. But I don't post any of my project photos, I never see Instagram as a portfolio.

However, when I first created EXCONMED's Instagram account I had no idea what to post, so I uploaded old photos that are on my phone. I made that account is because I want to use it as a promotional tool, it reminds me of something Gary Vaynerchuk have mentioned in his blog post about personal branding. He believes "that the people who are willing to discuss their journeys instead of trying to front themselves as the “next big thing” are going to win." This is why I created this blog and Instagram account, I have a vision for where EXCONMED is going, I want to share this journey with everyone else. At the end of the day, EXCONMED is about how photography fits into this contemporary world. It will be interesting to see what photos I will start posting on Instagram in the coming months to promote EXCONMED.

Ethan Lo is the founder of the Exploration of Concept and Medium and a working artist.

© Ethan Lo 2018