The Homogeneity of Instagram Travel Photos

How many millions of people are posting on Instagram? How many billions of photos are on Instagram now?<p>Is it really so crazy to think that all of those billions of photos, you can find groupings of 12 that are similarly composed? How many unique photos are there to take really?<p>I&#x27;d be way more impressed if you could somehow come up with a set of a billion photos such that there are no compositional groupings across the set. Earth only has so many types of things on it to photograph.

I’ve been seeing a lot of these articles lately. We need someone to write about the alarming homogeneity of articles about the similarity of Instagram photos.

loosely related, but here is an amazing project by Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom (20 years in the making) that explores the topic of &#x27;homogeneity&#x27;: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.citylab.com&#x2F;design&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;20-years-of-photos-show-just-how-boring-we-all-are&#x2F;383781&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.citylab.com&#x2F;design&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;20-years-of-photos-sh...</a><p>(the book: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;0714867152" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;0714867152</a>)

Isn&#x27;t this akin to complaining if people for access to tools for drawing, that there would be a lot of fruit bowls out there? The fact is, cameras on cell phones have brought artistic tools to an incredibly large set of people, and of course there is to be expected alot of mimicry. But lots of originality can come through. Browse through Dribbble sometimes. There can be plenty of creativity in remixes and covers of others work.

Those photos all look amazing. Now I want to replicate those shots and put them on Instagram.

This has less to do with Instagram and more to the fact that all art is derived from other art.

I feel the the homogeneity is a result of what they’re looking for - people sharing pictures of their vacations are not the same as people trying to be “influencers”.<p>I don’t think any of the travel pictures I see on Instagram of shared albums on Mac&#x2F;iOS are like these. But then I’m not following influencers, I’m following friends and family (travel photos), and dogs (no travel photos, but definitely dogs)

If I went to any of those locations I’d take a picture that looks exactly like that but there is a huge difference - the people in it are <i>me</i> or my close ones. And the people watching my travel pictures are <i>our</i> friends.<p>People who follow random people on Instagram are the enigma, not that they all take the same photos.

Trust HN commenters to call into question the (perfectly reasonable) premise of the article.<p>The fact that Instagram is visual, not drably textual like HN, shouldn&#x27;t really prevent anyone from discerning the fact that there&#x27;s a significant amount of imitation, cliché, and trendy conformity in the images people post.

Black Mirror&#x27;s Nosedive episode did up all the sets, scenery, costumes, and makeup as one gigantic Instagram post.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.instagram.com&#x2F;socalitybarbie&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.instagram.com&#x2F;socalitybarbie&#x2F;</a> would fit into many of these

Shouldn&#x27;t that be self-evident? Humans have a lot in common and so do the things they find attractive or memorable. Even if someone attempted to be the world champion of uniqueness, in a population as large as Instagram users that would be hard to accomplish.

How is this alarming? Who gives a toss if people who want to be &quot;influencers&quot; are all doing the same thing? Frankly it makes it easier for the humans to ignore them.

I for one am utterly amazed that a social media platform does not actually foster creativity and originality. What.A.Surprise

It´s called genre.

Yeah, some people lack imagination. I used to make electronic music. I lack imagination. I wasn&#x27;t good at it. But I had fun doing it nonetheless.