The Art of Instagram

I don't know a single person off the top of my head who doesn't have an Instagram account other than maybe my older relatives. But the art of curating a successful Instagram account that people REALLY want to visit and commend for the aesthetics eludes most of us (Myself Included). Is it simply that we don't have the same 'beautiful' or #blessed lives that those that are instafamous have? Or is it just that we have other commitments and more important things to do than to pose our entire lives for other peoples viewing pleasure?

Don't get me wrong I love Instagram and stalking peoples accounts relishing in the absurd FOMO I get from their projected lifestyles. But I do remind myself that I personally like to experience things rather than capture them and this is why I don't have pictures of 'that' sunset or concert. This is okay. I promise you. It is not normal, I tell myself as I gaze at the beauty of Rumi Neely or Nicole Warne as they drape themselves over beaches or cities such as Venice and Rome. It may not be normal but it is escapism for me I love looking at these accounts and projecting my own ambitions by living vicariously through others.

My account shows the things that I am proud of at that moment in time or I think are pretty. I don't have hundreds of followers or likes but I think my account shows who I am well enough. I follow a range of photographers, bloggers, friends and celebrities that I either fancy or respect. My account is curated for my own personal enjoyment moreover other peoples.

But really what is the difference between my friends or my personal account to these insta famous accounts. We all post curated content, a rose tinted version of our lives for the world to see. What is the art to creating a successful instagram account? I think the most important thing is to have a theme and stick to it everything has to be harmonious or people just aren't interested. To prove this I am going to show you successful accounts who do not belong to celebrities or icons but simply accounts that have gained traction simply through being a successful account that people identify with.

But my favourite Instagram account belongs to the wonderful Laura Zalengea who has used the gallery feature of her account to showcase her photography in a really innovative and beautiful way. I was following her before she started to present her Instagram in this was and it took me ages to figure out what she was doing seeing her pictures presented in parts on my feed confused me. It was only when I visited her page that I realised the genius of what she was doing. 

What is your instagram's aesthetic? 

Through the Lens: Tides of Time

I love photography and a great range of photographers inspire me, it is an ever-changing list with different 'top players' depending on what is happening in my life and what else is directly inspiring my work. However the first photographer who struck a chord with me and inspired my work is the wonderful Laura Zalengea.

I first found her work a few years ago and I have been a huge fan ever since following her on all possible social media outputs. I honestly have never seen her post a bad picture they all have so much depth and emotion within them. She has a real knack for post production so the images often have incredible colour pallets which carry the subject matter onto a whole new level.

Laura had a passion for photography but was studying architecture at university when I first started following her work. However now she is a full time professional photographer with an architecture degree under her belt to match. She travels the world and does a lot of commissions for travel companies who want something a bit different for the campaigns. As well as doing personal projects like the 1000 strangers project or 52 week challenges. As I said previously I adore all of her work but sometimes there is something just that extra bit special about the mood of certain images.

These were all taken on trips to the USA with a group of photographers but the peace that they convey really inspired me. The solitude and silence of these images really spoke to me and have remained something I think about often.

This winter I was lucky Enough to find a day when I could get to the beach and try and recreate the mood that these images evoke. It was a freezing day and on a British beach there was not the same solitude. It turns out dog walkers are very nosy and have very high opinions as to what a 'young lady' should and shouldn't be doing in December. But it was a lot of fun and worth the hassle to even attempt to recreate this aesthetic. 

We all need to dance in the waves every once in a while don't we? 

Mad About The Boy

A few days ago I took a research trip to London but couldn't resist taking up the opportunity to visit one of the magnitude of wonderful exhibitions that our great capital has to offer. One Exhibition was on at the Fashion Space gallery and was called 'Mad About the Boy'. It was an in depth look at fashions obsession with the young male. 

The exhibition was an eclectic mixture of Photography and designers collections from current artists as well as this from the 70's, 80's and 90's. The way in which the Exhibition was played out allowed there to be sections exploring the connection between male youth and different aspects of life and the way in which fashion capitalises upon the developing relationship between the two. 

Between Man and Child 

This part of the exhibition explored the way in which youths are represented as being in a liminal position mentally as well as physically. Fashion focuses on the 'meaning' of growing up the freedom, insolence, man hood, the intangible factors. The exhibition explored the way in which fashion creates and celebrates this as a fetish (as such) with the in-betweens of male youth by juxtaposing meta manly models with chilling surroundings kitch outfits or vice versa. 

In The Club 

The Exhibition then went on to explore the content relationship that fashion highlights with the male youth and the club scene. The music and bands that they listen to the movement. The way in which designers almost obsessively revisit their youth through referencing their own experience of this. "All these grown men given huge resources to flex their adolescent fascinations"- Tim Blanks. The exhibition argued that the preconception of this culture is being maintained by fashions commitment to representing it in their collections. 

In Eduction 

School was documented as being huge contributor to fashion and the inspiration it gives to photographers and designers alike such as bonding, identity, routine and rules (to be broken?). The Exhibition explored to the huge extent at which uniform is referenced within menswear in particular however it was the more emotional aspects of school that inspire so many within the fashion world. Rights of passage such as the leavers shirts (Raf Simmons graffiti scrawled lab coats where presented in the centre of the exhibition) 

Between Genders 

Recently in particular Gender fluidity or androgyny has become a very largely spoken about part of peoples lives. However this exhibition explored the way fashion has always fetishised genderless dressing in editorials and collections alike. Masculine men juxtaposed with feminine tailoring or accessories or Feminine models in masculine situations and styling are something that has often been commented on as being liberating. The exhibition explored how the 'boys' ability to transform and adapt his identity within fashion is what is so seductive about this demographic. 

As A Sexual Object 

This part of the exhibition was particular interesting to me as it explored the inconsistencies within the fashion landscape. It was exploring how the overt sexualisation of young women is widely criticised however the same sexualisation of a male youth is not given the same level of scathing scrutiny. It explored how young boys are displayed as an object of desire (the boy next door, shy inexperienced) placed within sexual fantasies encouraging the female gaze. The exhibition explored the way that people are encouraged to enjoy the act of voyerism when looking at a male yet scathed for doing so when a female. Culturally I personally feel that this has to change, both genders should be treated with the same level of digression especially when age plays such a large component within the argument. 

My Thoughts 

I absolutely loved the exhibition, It was aesthetically beautiful as well as incredibly thought provoking. It was perfectly sized and you could just tell walking around that the curator/s must have been so enthusiastic about the contents. They had a very interesting system where you collected information as you went around and created your of 'pack'. This slight amount of interactivity helped connect your to the subject matter and really emerge yourself within the collections. It was truly thrilling and maybe just one of the best exhibitions I have been to in a long time. 

London Photo Diary

A research trip to London isn't the time in which you would expect me to be playing photographer, but its the small details of London which make it such an interesting and quite frankly beautiful city. I don't care about the London eye or the shard but I do care about the particular way that the light shimmers in the windows of a storefront or the potted flowers on the steps of a particularly opulent town house. It is the small narratives of the millions of people on the streets of our capital that are so captivating and inspiring to me so that is why you have me with my camera....noticing the small things. 

The Fresh flower display outside of Liberty. I loved the colours and the way in which they had been set out. 

The Lanterns in china town. I loved the way that the wind was making the lanterns dance over the streets... I took way too many photos of them! 

Conceptual art Tate Britain. I loved the way that the people where frozen by this art and I had to capture the way that they just stopped like statues completely arrested by the work. 

Street Lamp outside Parliament. I caught this just after all the lamps flickered on marking the turn of the evening, my favourite time of day that hour of so of dusk. 

A walkway beside the Savoy. It was the lights that captured me here and the way that they showed off the architecture so beautifully. 

Wonderful Women: Marchesa Luisa Casati

If ever there was a woman who wished to defy mortality it had to be Marchesa Casati and to some extent she managed this feat. She was born in 1881 and inherited a grand fourtune allowing her to become one of the brightest stars of society if not the most scandalous woman of the era. Casati threw the most lavish and sought after parties and balls in her opulent houses. But it wasn't just the promise of a wonderful event that drew in the masses of guests but the hostess herself.

"I want to be a living work of art"

This is something that Casati is quoted as saying and she truly meant it, she had an unconventional beauty with a mass of fiery red hair bundled on top of her head with her large green eyes and deep plum pout over her almost translucent skin had a very arresting affect on all that met her. As if her beauty was not enough she would wear outrageous outfits and accessories them often with her grand taste in animal companions; live snakes draped around her neck a cheater on a leash as she strolled the gardens in nothing  but a fur coat, live Beatles attached by chains and decorated with jewels as a necklace that crawled over her chest.

It is not hard to see why this woman made such an impact on society moreover that she was the muse of so many artists. It is said that she is the third most artistically represented woman of all time bested only by Cleopatra and the Virgin Mary. She would commission paintings, sculptures and photographed not only by the great artists of her day but also of new and longer artists who she deemed to have promise. She portraits commissioned by Giovanni Bolding, Augustus John and Kees Van Dongen. Sculptures by:Giacomo Balla, Catherine Barjansky and Jacob Epstein. Photographs by: Cecil Beaton, Man Ray and Baron Adolphe de Meyer. This is just a short list of many many artists, Casati was not like the usual people who would commission the art she would use her status to bring the artists into her social circles and was pivotal in their success in many cases. 

On finding out about this wonderfully eccentric yet deeply conflicted woman I was desperate to find out more about her, I was fascinated by her complete insistence of revolting against the norm in every aspect of her life. I love the fact that she had such control over men and used this power for not only her own means but to better those that helped her. I love her unashamed lavish lifestyle and the mythic quality to many of the stories surrounding her. She had the ability to inspire then and she still has a magnetic quality that inspires, some half a century after her death with artists such as Alexander McQueen, Tom Ford and John Galliano openly admitting to her influence. 

I like to think that this is what she wanted when she was living, to become immortal not in the flesh but through the art and ideas that she inspired, through the stories that people told and through a continued entrancement with the name Marchesa Luisa Casati.