Scrolling through Instagram can be an unnerving experience. The endless travel snapshots and healthy buddha bowls can make the best of us feel inadequate. But of the app’s more positive characteristics is its open invitation to countless creatives around the globe. This in mind, it’s best used as a tool for absorbing aesthetics that excite you rather than fill you with self-doubt. These five photography accounts are exclusively analogue, suitably nostalgic and definitely worth a follow — who knows, maybe they’ll even persuade you to pick up a camera.
Josh Kern @_kjosh
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This Dortmund-based photographer’s images are comparable to stills from a ‘90s film. He lenses the tender exchanges between friends, ordinary moments of far-off thought and urban scenes infused with a summer-in-the-city feel. Fair warning: if you’re struggling with the transition into winter, maybe postpone your follow until the weather picks up.
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Edie Sunday @ediesunday
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If you like haunting portraits and cryptic locations, you’ll love Edie Sunday’s photography. Dream-like landscapes act as the backdrop for intimate photos of friends, self-portraits and long-exposure shots of distant ghostly figures. They somehow incite a desire to take off to another planet — one with where everything is soft and floaty and pleasing to the eye.
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Luca Tonelleto @l.tnlt
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Sometimes, nothing beats a bit of black and white photography, and Switzerland-based Luca Tonelleto masters the art. With images that could have been plucked straight out of the 1960s, he sees the photography process from beginning to end; developing and scanning his own photos from home. High contrast streetscapes and ambiguous silhouettes are key protagonists in his work.
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Patrick Clelland @dayzedandconfuzed
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If we had to choose one adjective to sum up Patrick Clelland’s work, ‘cinematic’ might be the most fitting. His shots invite you into their world; capturing the hustle and bustle of city nights and the low-lit interiors of airports, take-out restaurants and roadside motels. He hails from Sydney, Australia, but his subjects are far-flung – from Tokyo to Hong Kong to New Zealand.
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Chloe Sheppard @eolhcsheppard
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A champion of girl power and retro visuals, Chloe Sheppard is the kind of creator Instagram needs more of. She explores body positivity, female youth and diversity in serene, pastel-toned portraits (self- and otherwise). Her talents don’t stop there; she makes short films too. A Much Better Illusion is threaded with coming-of-age themes, captured through an analogue lens, and will be screened in London’s Somerset House on December 17th.
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Header image courtesy of Chloe Sheppard