Instagram Goes Analog With Its First Photo Exhibit

For its first-ever exhibit, Instagram's editorial team has culled photos from its creative community. This image came from the @everydayeasterneurope. Photo: Brendan Hoffman @hoffmanbrendan

For its first-ever exhibit, Instagram's editorial team has culled photos from its creative community. This image came from the @everydayeasterneurope.Photo: Brendan Hoffman @hoffmanbrendan The exhibit, which is staged in two shipping containers at the Photoville event in Brooklyn, is broken into two parts: The Everyday Projects and Here in the World: Voices of Instagram. Photo: Stef Zanirato @teppanyakiii

The exhibit, which is staged in two shipping containers at the Photoville event in Brooklyn, is broken into two parts: The Everyday Projects and Here in the World: Voices of Instagram.Photo: Stef Zanirato @teppanyakiii The Everyday Projects is what editorial director Pamela Chen calls a "unique phenomenon." Here, a photo of a couple in Northern Myanmar, from the Everyday Asia feed. Photo: Andre Malerba @amcaptures

A young couple meets for a stolen moment on motorbikes along the Irrawaddy river on the outskirts of Myitkyina, a town in Kachin state in Northern Myanmar. Umbrellas are a necessity in Myanmar to protect against rain, sun and to create a private space, hiding any “indecent” behavior. Photo by Andre Malerba/@amcaptures #everydayasiaPhoto: Andre Malerba @amcaptures The first Everyday project started in Africa, when two journalists grew frustrated with the typical Western narrative portraying only the sick or poor side of the continent. After they started posting images of daily life, photographers in other countries followed suit. Here, from Everyday Middle East, an Iranian bride and groom get ready for their wedding. Photo: Hanif Shoaei @HanifShoaei

An Iranian groom, Mohammad, 26, looks at himself in a mirror while a bride Mona, 25, poses for a photographer during a wedding photo shoot in Tehran, Iran. Photo by Hanif Shoaei, (@HanifShoaei), March 2014.Photo: Hanif Shoaei @HanifShoaei The Here in the World: Voices of Instagram exhibit is a survey of different creative types that have appeared on Instagram’s blog. Photo: Tierney Gearon @tierneygearon

The Here in the World: Voices of Instagram exhibit is a survey of different creative types that have appeared on Instagram’s blog.Photo: Tierney Gearon @tierneygearon In North Korea, veterans walk into a cemetery for a ceremony on the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended hostilities on the Korean peninsula. Photo: David Guttenfelder @dguttenfelder

North Korean veterans of the Korean War enter a cemetery for fellow veterans in Pyongyang, North Korea during an opening ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended hostilities on the Korean peninsula.Photo: David Guttenfelder @dguttenfelder For the past few months Ako Salemi (the self-proclaimed "Robert Frank of Tehran") has captured the Iranian city only in stark, black-and-white photos. Photo: Ako Salemi @f64s125

For the past few months Ako Salemi (the self-proclaimed "Robert Frank of Tehran") has captured the Iranian city only in stark, black-and-white photos.Photo: Ako Salemi @f64s125 Damien Frost's unique style of portraiture features his performer subjects in shadowy, theatrical light. Here, "Felicity on Old Compton." Photo: Damien Frost @harmonyhalo

Damien Frost's unique style of portraiture features his performer subjects in shadowy, theatrical light. Here, "Felicity on Old Compton."Photo: Damien Frost @harmonyhalo The Accra, Ghana-based photographer Nana Kofi Acquah does commercial work all over the continent, and contributed this to the Everyday Africa feed. Photo: Nana Kofi Acquah @africashowboy

The Accra, Ghana-based photographer Nana Kofi Acquah does commercial work all over the continent, and contributed this to the Everyday Africa feed.Photo: Nana Kofi Acquah @africashowboy Another shot by Acquah, for Everyday Africa. Photo: Nana Kofi Acquah @africashowboy

Another shot by Acquah, for Everyday Africa.Photo: Nana Kofi Acquah @africashowboy Stephen Smith is currently stationed at the Chico Basin Ranch in Colorado. His images are a diary of life in the desert. Photo: Stephen Smith @iamstephensmith

Stephen Smith is currently stationed at the Chico Basin Ranch in Colorado. His images are a diary of life in the desert.Photo: Stephen Smith @iamstephensmith For the Everyday USA feed Balazs Gardi captures an artist in Oakland, California, working on mechanics at American Steel Studios. Photo: Balazs Gardi @balazsgardi

For the Everyday USA feed Balazs Gardi captures an artist in Oakland, California, working on mechanics at American Steel Studios. Photo: Balazs Gardi @balazsgardi An Ecuadorian mother and daughter prepare for a photo, in the shadow of an extinct volcano. Photo: Ivan Kashinsky @ivankphoto

Project Mi Barrio – Señorita Ilalo - María Lara prepares her daughter María Alejandra Lara,16, for a photo in Rumihuaico, Ecuador, on December 22, 2013. Alejandra was named Señorita Ilalo in the election of the queen of Tumbaco. She is wearing traditional indigenous clothing from Cayambe and is standing on her grandfather's land on Ilalo, an extinct volcano.Photo: Ivan Kashinsky @ivankphoto One of the few photographers in the exhibit featuring a self portrait, Marawa Wamp is a professional hoola hoop-er. Here, she's outside the Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem. Photo: Marawa Wamp @marawa

One of the few photographers in the exhibit featuring a self portrait, Marawa Wamp is a professional hoola hoop-er. Here, she's outside the Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem.Photo: Marawa Wamp @marawa Matt Slabby shoots absurdist images in Colorado. Here, a space man hangs at the local Donut Pub. Photo: Matt Slabby @mattslaby

Matt Slabby shoots absurdist images in Colorado. Here, a space man hangs at the local Donut Pub.Photo: Matt Slabby @mattslaby Underwater photographer Sarah Lee's images capture swimmers in Hawaii. Photo: Sarah Lee @hisarahlee

Underwater photographer Sarah Lee's images capture swimmers in Hawaii.Photo: Sarah Lee @hisarahlee

To thumb through Instagram is to parse a wide and often unpredictable range of emotions. Things can be sensational (Beyoncé‘s Instagram account), harrowing and uplifting, all at once (the Humans of New York feed), or kinda raunchy (The Fat Jew). But it is always, unconditionally, digital.

Except for next week: For ten days, for free, anyone in New York can take a screen-free tour of Instagram. The company’s editorial division is exhibiting at Photoville, where a string of shipping containers will decorate Brooklyn Bridge Park from September 18 to 28. Two of those will host Instagram’s exhibits, The Everyday Projects and Here in the World: Voices of Instagram, a survey of different creative types that have appeared on Instagram’s blog.

Photo: Nana Kofi Acquah @africashowboy

The Everyday Projects began in 2012 when photographer Peter DiCampo and journalist Austin Merrill were working in West Africa. They saw a side of life often left out of the usual visual narrative. “Western journalists are often only sent in times of crisis, so the images from media in the news are full of despair, and perhaps they miss out on some of the beauty and the normal everyday life that happens in between,” says Pamela Chen, editorial director at Instagram. Her job includes keeping tabs on the artists and photographers leveraging Instagram for creative uses, and she calls the “everyday” movement a “unique Instagram phenomenon,” because after @everydayafrica gained traction, feeds started appearing for dozens of other countries. There’s @everydayiran, @everydayasia, and @everydayjamaica, to name a few. Sixty-five photos from ten of those feeds will appear at Photoville.

This is the first time Instagram has dabbled with a gallery show, so naturally “it’s the first time that these have been exhibited side by side, and the first time that they’ve met each other,” Chen says. “So a community was created online, and now it’s coming together in real life.”

To really drive that IRL-ness home, Chen and her team installed a large scale, analog photo feed in one of the shipping containers. Instead of thumb-swiping upwards, visitors will use a lever to manually crank a stream of two-feet-tall photos. Each comes with the signage and descriptions you’d get in the app, so users can figure out whom to follow once they’ve left Photoville.

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