For creative professions, social media capital can be just as, or more important, than ability and experience, Angelica Frey writes. She considers the mundane, all-consuming reality of creating "aspirational content".
'Instagram is simultaneously a glossy photo gallery, an art market space, a platform for brands, and seemingly a way for the average person to become famous and amass a healthy amount of money with little effort. The social media channel has come a long way since it was primarily a tool for artistically inclined users who wanted to take Polaroid-like photos with their once-subpar iPhone cameras. But the reality of ‘Gram fame is very different from the facade. In #followme, billed by Dutch broadcaster VPRO as the first documentary about Instagram for Instagram, director and host Nicolaas Veul posits that the site’s influencer economy is a barely concealed MLM scheme.
Veul introduces us to a series of “normal” people who work with Instagram. Olivier is a 19-year-old wannabe fashion influencer from Amsterdam whom we follow on a photo shoot. For one picture, he pretends to bite into a hamburger, but leaves it untouched, calling it just a prop (Veul proceeds to scarf it down). Katia from Moscow is a dedicated user of Commenter, software which facilitates the exchange of money for real people to comment on targeted pages. Sara Melotti is a Milan-based photographer and former travel influencer who admits to heavily doctoring her Instagram presence, and now regrets it. “If you’re doing it for your ego, you’re a moron, but if you’re getting paid for it, that’s fraud.” ... Keep reading on Hyperallergic
'Instagram is simultaneously a glossy photo gallery, an art market space, a platform for brands, and seemingly a way for the average person to become famous and amass a healthy amount of money with little effort. The social media channel has come a long way since it was primarily a tool for artistically inclined users who wanted to take Polaroid-like photos with their once-subpar iPhone cameras. But the reality of ‘Gram fame is very different from the facade. In #followme, billed by Dutch broadcaster VPRO as the first documentary about Instagram for Instagram, director and host Nicolaas Veul posits that the site’s influencer economy is a barely concealed MLM scheme.
Veul introduces us to a series of “normal” people who work with Instagram. Olivier is a 19-year-old wannabe fashion influencer from Amsterdam whom we follow on a photo shoot. For one picture, he pretends to bite into a hamburger, but leaves it untouched, calling it just a prop (Veul proceeds to scarf it down). Katia from Moscow is a dedicated user of Commenter, software which facilitates the exchange of money for real people to comment on targeted pages. Sara Melotti is a Milan-based photographer and former travel influencer who admits to heavily doctoring her Instagram presence, and now regrets it. “If you’re doing it for your ego, you’re a moron, but if you’re getting paid for it, that’s fraud.” ... Keep reading on Hyperallergic