Instagram IRL: Metropolitan Gallery 250's photo show
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Get away from your phone screen for a second: Some of Philly's best IG photography is offline throughout March.
Mikala Jamison
Bailey Chick said that the photography show she’s curated is meant to echo the way we ingest social media.
The 250x250 “Instagram show,” running through March 30, with opening reception Friday, March 7 from 6 to 8 p.m., is experienced just as Instagram is — a long, continues string of images. At the gallery, literally: Dozens and dozens of Philly-centric Instagram photos have been pulled offline, printed and hung on a string along the perimeter of the room.
"It's a viral medium you can rapidly share, but it doesn't last for more than 30 seconds,” Chick said on the phone Thursday. She said the show will be a chance to freeze in time these snapshots of the city that can easily get swiped right past on an Instagram timeline.
The images — vibrant, mysterious, stark, many quite beautiful — are the work of some of Philly Instagram-ers who have gotten attention, awards or thousands of followers from their street photography: Austin Hodges (@austinxc04), Billy Cress (@radiowar), Koji Sese (@kojisese), Kory Zuccarelli (@zukephoto) and Rachel Hara (@rachelhara), who have more than 31,000 follows between them.
“These are all people who have studied photography and have decided to use Instagram as a vehicle to show their work. This is an opportunity for them to show their work in a gallery,” Chick said.
She conceived of the idea when she noticed the response to her fellow Metropolitan Bakery employee Hodges, who she called an “Instagram sensation” with his nearly 22,000 followers. His photos feature many local building facades with quirky architectural elements and bright colors.
“He’s worked in a studio setting, now he’s challenged his energy into online only,” Chick said, and added that’s true of many Instagram photographers. “It’s a strange twist for photography, which is a constantly changing medium…[now], photos exist in a purely digital place.”
250x250, then, Chick said — she is a printmaker, and admits she enjoys that physical element of such work — is an opportunity for people to engage one-on-one with the photographers during the opening reception Friday.
Instagram has given everyone the chance to be a photographer, which in itself changes the medium of photography in myriad ways. Now, we might in turn experience Instagram in a new way, if 250x250 is any indication. Could online really turn around and go offline again?
“I myself have found photographers and merchandisers on Instagram that I otherwise would not have come across, chick said. “I would hope people come away [from the show] with the knowledge of emerging younger photographers in the city.”
250x250 runs through March 30 at Metropolitan Gallery 250, 250 S. 18th St. It will be open to the public every Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 3 p.m. Opening reception is March 7 from 6 to 8 p.m., with the opportunity to meet the photographers and purchase a book of shots from Hodges and Cress. blog.metropolitanbakery.com.
