Do you ever get the feeling that everyone on your Instagram is living the same life? One anonymous artist and filmmaker did – so she founded @insta_repeat (bio: “Wander. Roam. Replicate”). Scroll down the account and what you’ll see is a repetitive grid – to say the least – of Insta cliché after Insta cliché.
The account features collages of probably the most posted outdoorsy photos on Instagram – from people sitting in front of lakes, to rowing in canoes. Some photographs are so common (like shots taken from inside a tent of the landscape beyond) that they’ve become extended series spanning up to ten posts. According to its Alaksa-based founder, the account is “meant to spark critique and dialogue about originality, art, photography and the role of the social media influencer.”
The 27-year-old, who purposely chooses images of natural landscapes, says she’s interested in the adventurer, wanderer living aesthetic, because “the homogeneity of the images seems antithetical to the roaming, free lifestyle they are portraying.”
To find the images, @insta_repeat follows a plethora of influencers and content creators that define their lifestyle as rustic and authentic. One hashtag, #personaloneinthewild, sums up many of @insta_repeat’s posts – featuring a solo figure in a natural landscape. “It’s by far the most common image I come across when I am combing through profiles, and the person is normally centred,” she says. “I have to split these images up into many sub-categories because there are so dang many.”
But the posts come with mixed reactions. While the account has reached over 100k followers in a little over two months, and received scores of praising comments, some people have taken offense – even reporting the posts.
“It’s totally the best part of the popularity of this page,” she says. “Usually when someone criticises the page, someone else jumps in and come to my defense and then some form of critical debate on originality begins.”
@insta_repeat