Once upon a time, Instagram was a vibrant community of mobile photographers taking consistently great photos. The app’s meticulously crafted filters could make anything look good, it seemed. Years later, all of your friends and maybe even your parents use Instagram, which means it’s filled with photos of not-so-pretty things like oversaturated cloudscapes, blurry selfies, and group photos washed out by an iPhone flash. Seeing the same shade of Sutro or Kelvin grading the hundredth photo in a row has made the app’s heavy-handed filters feel a bit stale, and videos, while useful, have detracted from what was once the defining mobile photography experience.
However, one corner of Instagram remains a sanctuary of excellent mobile photos. There are more than 4 million of them, and they’re all tagged #vscocam.