 "'Insta'nt insight: How the 'Everyday' accounts on Instagram are showing us our cities — like they haven't been seen before")
By Chirag Wakaskar It was back in 2010, while on an assignment for GettyImages, that I came across photographer Daniel Berehulak who was using his iPhone to take photos across the country. The photographs blew my mind (mostly because of Berehulak’s prowess) and I discovered a new world of mobile photography. The phone is inconspicuous — almost invisible on the streets — unlike a camera, which grabs attention. With the technology behind phone cameras getting better, the improvement started to reflect in the photographs you could take with them as well. I started off photographing the city and sharing these images on the popular social media platform Instagram, after seeing several international photographers such as Berehulak, Kevin Frayer, David Guttenfelder among others, also sharing their work on it. In India, there were few professional photographers on the platform — maybe because Instagram was considered a place to share food photos or selfies. Over time, that perception began to change, and Instagram is now a very serious medium for everyone related to photography. Giants like Magnum and National Geographic have very active accounts. Digital media agencies are taking an interest in Instagram and that has resulted in several curated photography pages with a massive following, created with purely commercial interests in mind. I came across @EverdayAfrica in 2013. It is a collective of photographers working in the continent and it presented an Africa that went beyond the image of famine, war and poverty that has been created in the popular consciousness. What the @EverdayAfrica account also did, was play a pivotal role in sparking an “everyday movement” all over the world.
Beyond this, @EverdayAfrica also helped in the creation of projects which are not only city or country-specific, but also tackle socially relevant issues (across the globe). Foremost among these are @everydayclimatechange — which looks at climate change and environmental issues — and also, @everydayincarceration, which showcases lives of people inside the prison system.
I have been documenting the city and its residents for a while now, sharing the images on my own Instagram feed — @ChiragWakaskar. Looking at the interest in my account and after an Instagram user suggested the idea to me, I created @EverydayMumbai. The aim was to share stories from the city which were beyond the tourist-y images of the Gateway of India and CST railway station.However unlike @EverydayAfrica and @EverydayAsia where we have a collective of photographers showcasing their work, @EverydayMumbai is a curated account on the lines of @EverydayEverywhere, where I share relevant images, based on Instagram users who have shared images using the hashtag #everydaymumbai. This is the city, like you’ve never seen it before — or seen a million times, and haven’t noticed. The response to @everydaymumbai has been overwhelming, to say the least. A lot of young photographers whose work is shared on it are happy to have a platform for their work, and for it to reach a larger audience. It has also inspired a lot of people to express an interest in learning the craft of photography. When I curate the images, I do try to provide a balanced view of the city. The popularity of the ‘Everyday’ projects can be attributed to the view they provide us into things we may have seen but have rarely looked into. And because of the accessibility of the medium, the users are able to not just consume stories — but also share them with us. In a way, the ‘Everyday’ projects have helped create a strong interest in photojournalism and documentary photography. Several young photographers are now telling stories via their cellphones or cameras and sharing them on Instagram for the world to see.Chirag Wakaskar is a photojournalist and the curator of @EverydayMumbai on Instagram
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