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Everyday … Climate Change …

During the Head On Photo Festival in Sydney a few weeks back I got to meet with many photographer colleagues … some that have been friends for many years … and many that I was meeting for the first time. Amongst the later was James Whitlow Delano … an American reportage photographer based in Tokyo with a reputation for great work on the subjects of human rights, the environment and culture.

James was a co-member of the Head On Photo Festival featured debate panel on photojournalism … and following the proceedings at The Beauchamp Hotel we had a little chat. James explained that he was the creator of one of the most far reaching and popular ‘everyday’ Instagram feeds … @everydayclimatechange … and invited me to join. Cool bananas … !!!

@everydayclimatechange, as the name suggests, attempts to highlight the problems and challenges of Global climate change through imagery … and it’s photographer lineup is awe inspiring! As well as James … amongst the inspirational and dedicated members are Ed Kashi, Ashley Crowther, Michael Robinson Chavez, Franck Vogel, Palani Mohan, Amnon Gutman, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Matilde Gattoni and Vlad Sokhin … to name just a few from around six continents. (Apparently I’m the first Australasian based member – an honour indeed).

The feed is currently (today) followed by over ninety six thousand people World wide … and fast approaching the 100K milestone. It makes fascinating reading and viewing and brings into stark reality the effects that human habitation is having on our Global home.

For myself, already a member of of @everydayaustralia created by Andrew Quilty and currently with over 56K followers, @everydayclimatechange gives me the opportunity for my work to be seen by a wider audience … and perhaps make an infinitesimal difference to the state of our planet.

Please consider following @everydayclimatechange

Below is a screen grab of the @everydayclimatechange page … followed by the image and text of my very first post. Thanks James for the great opportunity.

Images © Brian Cassey (1) and individual photographers.

@everydayclimatechange - Everyday Climate Change - Brian Cassey

 

@everydayclimatechange - Everyday Climate Change - Brian Cassey

Everyday … Everywhere …


Have been asked to do a little spell of ‘curating’ by Seattle based photographer Peter DiCampo on the ‘EverydayEverywhere’ Instagram feed. For two weeks in August/September (specifically 23rd August to September 5th) my task will be to select a couple of the best images each day from the various ‘Everyday’ feeds around the planet … and feature them on the world wide umbrella ‘EverydayEverywhere’ feed.

‘Everyday’ feeds have taken Instagram by storm since 2012 when Peter DiCampo and writer Austin Merrill founded @everydayafrica to showcase the best documentary images of the African Continent. It now has 159K followers. Various geographic feeds have spread around the world to include @everydayusa, @everydayvietnam, @everydayasia, @everydayeasterneurope, @everydaylatinamerica, @everydaymiddleeast, @everydayiran, @everydayegypt, @everydaydprk … and many many more.

‘EverydayEverywhere’ (@everydayeverywhere) has amassed just under sixty thousand followers since launch and is a visual feast of contemporary daily life images from around our planet.

My involvement came about as a member of Australia’s own ‘Everyday’ feed – @everydayaustralia – at the initial invitation of supremely talented photojournalist Andrew Quilty about six months ago. Our Australian ‘Everyday’ feed grew steadily in members, posts and followers until about two weeks ago when Instagram decided we were worthy of a spot on their ‘Suggested Users’ feature. Instagram says their “Suggested Users List is a dynamic list that highlights some of the top community members on Instagram”. In the last two weeks we have seen our number of followers skyrocket from a modest 3000 to almost 45K !! (We’re catching up with you @everydayeverywhere !)

My fellow contributors to @everydayaustralia are … Simone De Peak @simonedepeak, Nick Moir @nampix, Raphaela Rosella @raphaelarosella, Neda Vanovac @bookhopper, Glenn Campbell @glenn_campbell, Michael Wilson @michaelwwilson, Justine Muller @_justine_muller … and Dean Sewell @dean_sewell. My ‘handle’ is @brian_cassey.

Below I’ve posted current phone screen shots of both @everydayeverywhere and @everydataustralia .

© IG and the individual photographers.

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Everyday, Australia and the World …

Delighted to be invited to be part of the ‘Everyday’ phenomenon currently running riot on Instagram.

The story of ‘Everyday’ Instagram feeds began in 2012 when photographer Peter DiCampo and writer Austin Merrill founded @everydayafrica to showcase the best documentary images of the African Continent. It now has a following in excess of 113,000. Since then, many other accounts have been born including @everydayasia which has amassed more than 50,000 followers and, most recently, @everydayusa which grew to a similar number in just a matter of months.

This week I received an invitation to be part of  the new ‘Everyday Australia’  @everydayaustralia feed curated by current Nikon Walkley Press Photographer of the Year and all round consummate photojournalist and good guy Andrew Quilty. I didn’t have to think twice!

Andrew’s creation of @everydayaustralia makes it the sixth continent to be covered by the official ‘Everyday’ network. DiCampo and Merrill have both been very enthusiastic about the launch of @everydayaustralia, as has Teru Kuwayama – Facebook’s photo community manager – who made the account name available.

Since late 2014 all the various ‘Everyday’ feeds have been loosely connected under a Global umbrella feed “Everyday Everywhere” @everydayeverywhere which acts as a World wide “Best Of” window. The @everydayeverywhere feed on Instagram is controlled by a central curator who searches for recent hash tagged #everydayeverywhere images from the various ‘Everyday’ feeds and reposts at least one every day.

At the moment the contributing photographers to @everydayaustralia are Oculi collective members Andrew, Dean Sewell and Raphaela Rosella, WA based Michael Wilson … and myself. STOP PRESS – two more contributors have just been announced – Darwin’s Glenn Campbell (‘fotostrada’ collective) and Newcastle based Simone De Peak. Look out for their first @everdayaustralia posts.

Generally speaking, depicting daily life in Australia is ‘raison d’être’ for @everydayaustralia. Work is documentary in style but also not excluding portraits, news, events etc.

Please take the time to find some great mobile device photojournalism and daily life work on @everydayaustralia and @everydayeverywhere.

Below are my first couple of contributions to @everydayaustralia
 … a click on them will take you to the feed to see the stories behind these two images and more from the other contributors. My personal Instagram feed is @brian_cassey.

Instagram iPhone images © Brian Cassey

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Instagrammification …

… is the title of a new book I’ve just published containing a selection of 80 images from my Instagram collection. Random images – no particular theme – and no text to speak of.

Just the images … all taken on the (now nearly antique) iPhone4

‘ INSTAGRAMMIFICATION ‘ is 7″x7″ (17.78cms x 17.78cms), available as a hard cover edition, soft cover or eBook … and … if you are interested there are more details and order information on my web site ‘Books’ page here.

Below is image of the cover … © Brian Cassey

Instagram, The Australian, and me …

I’ve spent my entire career making images of other people from the back side of a camera.   So it was a little daunting and very different to be asked to supply an image of myself “Instagramming” for an article in The Australian newspaper on the rise of the social media photography application.

“Instagram” has quickly grown to 27 million iPhone users in just 17 months … and a version for Android users is due to be realised any day now.

It is widely used on a daily basis by a growing number of Australia’s top photojournalists who delight in the creativity and competition that the app invites.

The article in The Weekend Australian – written by journalist Chris Griffith and published across the entire top half of page 7 on Saturday March 24th – tells of the rapid rise and the possible future for the “Instagram” app, and my experiences using it.

The main pic in the spread was an image I (reluctantly!) shot of myself using the iPhone at beautiful Mission Beach … and this was surrounded by some of my most ‘liked’ “Instagram” images. (I promise not to get into the habit of taking pics of myself!)

Below I’ve posted an image of the top half of page 7 showing how The Weekend Australian ran the story.

The text of the article can be found here … and The Australian’s gallery of some of my “Instagram” images – all taken on a now ageing iPhone4 –  is here.

If you wish to follow my work on “Instagram” look for … @brian_cassey

Instagram … Instant Gratification …

Apple has just announced that it’s “iPhone App Of 2011” is the ‘photographers Facebook’ – “Instagram”.

Media photographers in Australia have certainly embraced the much lauded image sharing application and fierce rivalry is rampant. It certainly is addictive …

The idea is you make photographs on your iPhone (other image capturing devices are generally frowned upon), compose in a square (6×6 like) format, apply filters etc and then post it to “Instagram” where your followers and other viewers comment on or ‘Like’ you efforts.

The process is certainly rewarding, competitive and cathartic … and the list of top Australian pro snappers that ‘can’t get enough ‘ is impressive – Adam Taylor (@adamtaylorphoto), Brad Hunter (@hunterphoto), Dean Lewins (@deanlewinsphoto), Lisa Wiltse (@lisawiltse), Nick Moir (@nampix), Quentin Jones (@heycharger), Steve Christo (@christo1966), Toby Zerna (@zerns), Wolter Peters (@snapperwol), Craig Greenhill (@saltwaterimages), Mark “Crusty’ Baker (@crustybaker), Rob Griffith (@griffgear), Brett Costello (@brettcostellophoto), Glenn Campbell (@glenn_campbell), Greg Porteous (@skipper_aust), Mark Evans (@evohood) and partner Jenny Evans (@mrs_evo) – and many more … (apologies to those I’ve forgotten!).

It certainly encourages some real creativity and is a welcome diversion from the day to day press image grind.

My recent foray into “Instagram” is under the moniker @brian_cassey.

I’ve posted below some images from my  “Instagram” efforts – clicking on the pics will take you to their respective address’s in the app where you can see “likes”,  “comments” and how the app actually operates.

“Instagram” is free …

All Images © Brian Cassey