#instagramresearch

[theactivatedspectator]

#4 Cyrcle

This is the instagram account of artist duo Cyrcle.

*images used for educational purposes only*

As an artist duo this account is different to the others that I have considered on this blog. Being run by two people at the same time means there is a lot of visual randomness on this page but it works excellently at conveying the multimedia / interdisciplinary nature of these artist. These guys have perfected a commercial presence on iG.

Video & Story Highlights: A lot of the highlights on this profile are sit down discussions of the artists talking about their work. This is a really normal and easy to understand way of communicating work to large audiences who might not particularly be educated in art.

Commerce: Their instagram presents acts as the advertising machine of their online shop where prints and trinkets are readily available. Posts also have swipe up links to take the consumer directly to the product. If you want to make money from your art this is necessary.

Tagging Collaborators: These guys post and make sure that they shout-out or tag any other brand related to the post either working with or in the photo. They also tag the paint brands that they use and printing services! Brands have the greatest amount of exposure and by connecting your account to theirs through tags and hashtags can help generate traffic.

Popular Culture: They post memes and segments from TV shows or tweets that relate to events going on culturally at that moment. This is again a way of marketing yourself to the masses, to be relatable and understandable.

At this point this is what my account is not, it is not relatable to the average joe, it is relatable to those with an art education.

[theactivatedspectator]

#3 Gregory Halpern

This is the iG account of Gregory Halpern.

*images used for educational purposes only*

Gregory Halpern is an academic / photographer who I came across at Paris photo, his beautiful photo book entitled Omaha Sketchbook was published by MACK. I have chosen to include Halpern in this assessment of instagram presentation. What I really enjoy about this account is the dispersal of finished work, amongst real life, amongst work in progress. 

Colouration: The photo book published by MACK has these beautifully coloured pages and the same colour theme crops up in the feed. This is something interesting to think about Annie when you are working with a project that has a specific colour palette. Using colour in this way will also enable you to infused real life - personality with your artwork. 

Daily life vs art: Halpern has a great combination of art specific posts and other day to day life posts that help to convey who the character of Halpern must be. This is what audiences want from 21st century artists with online presence...transparency. 

Bio: This account doesn’t use a bio or story highlights to enhance presence. The weblink takes you to a job description for an academic post at RIT. This is the account of a real working academic and artist, rather than a social influencer or aesthetician. 

Halpern has found success in both academic and publishing circles so he does not need to have all his contact details easily visible. I need to work with my instagram account in a different way to his - utilising the software to share my work. However what I can take from the analysis of his account is the use of colour and the integration of daily life with art related photographs. 

[theactivatedspectator]

#2 Ordinary Light

This is the iG archive Ordinary Light by Brad Feuerhelm.

*images used for educational purposes only*

Ordinary Light is an instagram archive page run by artist and photographer Brad Feuerhelm. His page is used to review and comment on vintage photo books and photographers, known and unknown throughout history. 

I love the concept of his page, sharing all these lost moments of history, it reflects his artistic work as well. His personal work is mostly created from found photographs. 

Consistency: All images are photographed on an orange background and there is a higher percentage of black and white images vs colour which allows the orange background to work.

Captions: Although the artist doesn’t pose questions in his captions to engage viewers, he does post long and throughout analysis / description of the contents. This page has a specific niche of viewer in comparison to the first iG account examined and that means that this historic-information style of caption is perfectly suited.

Bio: The bio clearly states his role in the online art magazine American Suburbx. Also he mentions his latest book recently published by mack. As this is the first thing someone looks at on the page its a great idea to have recent achievements or accolades presented here.  

Web link: Through the web link the artist shares the latest post written for American Suburbx. A great opportunity to drive traffic for this site. Although I will be using my web link for my artist website, it is important to remember that if I have anything published it can be used temporarily to advertise this. 

[theactivatedspectator]

#1 Sorelle Amour

This is the iG account of Sorelle Amour. 

**images used for educational purposes only**

She is a content creator, photographer, artist and self proclaimed freedom fighter. I recently came across her account when I was looking into Krav Magar, but actually her content and use of the platform turned out to be inspiring to me. Although Sorelle is a content creator rather than an artist, I feel there is much to learn from the tips and tricks of content creators because they are the most successful at utilising instagram and driving traffic. 

Colour: through gradiential changes to colour on her feed, she makes her feed flow. Her branding is dark and gloomy with lots of oranges and blues. In a video Sorelle reveals that when editing her photos she will use the same preset on about 4 or 5 and then edit with a new preset to create this gradient. 

Highlights: In her story highlights, Sorelle identifies campaigns that she supports, particularly activism or latest products related to her and her channel, such as prints for sale. 

Captions: The captions Sorelle employs on her images are relatively long, they require engagement. She poses questions in the her captions which promote interactions and engagement. 

TheSelfie: Being in your own instagram photographs is proven to generate a higher level pf engagement because this is who people are really there for. Some advice I have found is to post photographs of yourself next to your work, as we have an interrim show upcoming, I intend to get some photographs of myself next to my work to share on my instagram feed. 

Multiples: Every one of her posts is part of a multiple of photos, she never posts one single image. This means that each image contains a series of coherent images and she also uses video as well in these sections. Video is something I haven’t thought about how I will be utilise yet....