I passed a milestone this past week when I posted my 2000th Instagram.
What started out as a way of forcing myself to notice my surroundings has turned into so much more. For five years now, one day at a time, I’ve looked for, recorded, and then posted a daily image. It’s become an ingrained way of life for me.
Several years into the project I started printing the images and keeping a stack of them with me, which has added a dimension that has expanded my world immensely. People often look at me with suspicion when I ask if I may give them something but when I explain that it’s a gift, a little piece of my art that they may take with no strings attached, most of them eagerly search through the photos.
Some people know immediately which one they want. Others pull out their favorites, narrowing them down and looking at them again before they choose.
Almost always, I hear stories…..why a certain image speaks to them, what memory it invokes or who it might remind them of. One of the very first ones I gave away was to an exceptionally helpful bus driver in Paris, dressed in a suit, who told me he wanted to stop his bus in the middle of the street and show everyone his picture! He obviously didn’t have time to choose his own photo so I randomly grabbed one from my stash and this particular image has proven to be one of the most popular ones in my collection.
A pharmacist in Wisconsin, after choosing a photo of pocket watches, showed me an extensive collection of watches that he keeps at the store.
On a trip to Europe a few years ago I left Instagrams with a cheesemaker in Belgium…..
a calligrapher in Poland…..
and a group of delightful sisters in Switzerland. In the case of Sister Gielia, an artist herself, the images bridged the gap between our two languages.
My sister-in-law is a big fan of this particular Instagram but every time I give it to her she finds someone to give it away to. I love that she meets people who will relate to the message, and passes it on, so now I keep her supplied with a stack of them.
When I was wondering around DC a few months ago I made an Instagram of a haiku about spring rain and posted it with the hashtag #goldentrianglehaiku.” Turns out that haiku was written by a woman in Bulgaria and it was the first time she had seen a photograph of her poetry, on a street in a country so very far away and so very different from her own. We’re now friends on Facebook.
So you see, I started out using Instagrams to help me see the world, but what has happened is they have also brought me closer to the people who inhabit that world.
That result, in Cajun terms, is the lagniappe. To a baker it’s the icing on the cake. To a kid in an ice cream parlor it’s the cherry on top of the sundae. To this photographer and member of the human race, it’s all of those things rolled into one.
Art is a connector.
Here are a few favorites from the last five years:
And if I may, let me add another cherry to the top of this story. When I started this project I lived at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Turns out, on the one year anniversary of his retirement ceremony from the Air Force, my husband accepted an offer for a full time job and it takes us right back to where the project started, in the Shreveport/Bosssier City area of Louisiana. I’ll miss the four seasons I have here in Virginia and snow will be something I have to travel to find, but this move does get us much, much closer to our grandchildren. Can’t argue with that!
To read more about how and why my Instagram project started, click here.
To visit my Instagram Facebook Page go here.
If you wish, you many follow me on Instagram under the name julannek.
You have my gratitude for visiting.
pauses&clicks 
My favorite is the dancing rabbits.
Second is the Eiffel Tower.
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The rabbits are new and I favor them also. It was such a gift to find them on a random walk in a town I was only visiting for a day!
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Where are those rabbits? I’m almost positive I have seen them in person but cannot remember where!
As for the rest. Wow, what discipline! What an accomplishment! How the heck does one do Instagram?? (I have successfully avoided so many technological things, eh?)
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Julie, your photography has touched me from the moment we met!! I still have the print you gave me of your parents’ hands! That photo represented to me the promise and rewards of a long and happy marriage! It came to me at a time I really needed a tangible reminder of such a promise.
When my fatherinlaw was dying earlier this year, I spent a lot of time sitting at his bedside, holding his hand. Perhaps I was channeling you, but I snapped several pictures of our hands as a way to somehow hold on to the moment, even if I couldn’t hold on to him.
You continue to be an inspiration to me! Thank you for pausing, clicking and sharing! ~Denisa
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Denisa, thanks for telling me that you did that with your grandfather. I’ll never be famous because of what I do but I am fulfilled beyond measure knowing my photographs touch people and perhaps make them see or do something a little bit differently. I’m humbled.
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Wow! This is an amazing story. Thank you for sharing.
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And thank YOU, Brenda, for reading!
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I believe the people in your life are indeed blessed
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Nice perspective – the years go so fast!
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They most certainly do Alex! Individual days can be long but years go by in the blink of an eye.
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How very rewarding for you and your new friends. This made me smile.
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Life is too often short. Making people smile is a very good thing. Your posts often do the same for me!
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Another weird thing in common, or maybe two…I take pictures also…everyday and print my favorites. Then I make photo cards from them. I do it in a similar way, meaning, I will hand a stack of greeting cards to someone and say “pick out a couple”. It’s my personal campaign for keeping the old fashioned forms of communication alive.
And Shreveport is very familiar territory. My husband and I met in Natchez, Mississippi and still go there sometimes to visit relatives. It’s only about 3 hours away from your new home so maybe we actually will get to meet someday!!
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The rabbits are in Dublin, OH at the top of a really wonderful splash pad. There’s a wall beneath them and the splash pad is all along the bottom of that wall. It’s such a wonderful setting.
I would love to meet you in person!!! Small world we live in!
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And for some reason, I don’t see your other comment so I’ll answer it here….saw it in an email. Instagram is a very easy app on your phone….you take the picture, crop and add borders and filters if you so desire, then post it. Normally I take photos as I go through my day, then pick my favorite that evening. And I really like your card idea….then people end up sharing your images again, as they send them out. Nice thought.
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Where do you get your Instagram pictures printed? I like the border. Do you get them printed in books as well? (So happy you will be back in LA!)
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Lucy, I print the myself. The quality of the paper is so essential to the print. I order my paper from a company called Red River Paper. They are amazing in terms of customer service and I love their photo paper. I have them all printed into little books from an app called Chatbooks. I subscribe to them and every sixty days I get another little book with the last sixty images in it. I’m now on Volume 33! When I come back to LA, you can pick out your very own Instagram!
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I would love to have one! Can’t wait to see you and Jim again.
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I get notifications each day in my email inbox when someone I follow posts something. Unfortunately, I let them build up a little much and nearly crashed my email (3,989 of them!). Following your “Do one every single day” lead, I committed a while back to delete at least 20 a day. Every now and then I find a post I actually missed. Today I discovered THIS one from you. How ironic that I had never read this particular one!! To have had the privilege to actually hear this wonderful story and about this practice in person is such an honor. I am so excited that we got to meet in person and now, happier than ever to be a recipient of one of your works of art!!
Lotsa love to you from me and James!
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I meant read it from my email notices, not that I didn’t read it…
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