A new breed of "explorers" has been popping up lately. "Instagram Explorers". Kids who go out and take photo's and post them directly to Instagram, and a lot of them have grown in popularity in recent months.

Probably the most well known group of Instagram Explorers is in NYC. This group includes people from Instagram like Heavy_Minds, Demidism, Night.Shift, 7thexpress, Humzadeas, 4th_Kind, and Black_Soap. All of their work is very similar looking, and is hard to tell the difference between their photo's. It seems that other cities might start getting larger communities of Insta Explorers soon as well.

Now, not any explorer who posts to Instagram is an "Instagram Explorer", but these guys go out and take photo's specifically to post to Instagram.

Here's a good quote I found about them:

"There has long been a subculture of so-called “urban explorers” who have made a game of accessing off-limits places. But Deas and the other Instagrammers distinguish themselves from these mostly older, more cerebral trespassers. “They'll go to the top of the bridge and touch it and be like, Wow, this architecture!,” Deas says, a little dismissively. Urban explorers take photos mainly to document that they’ve been there, while for Deas the image is the whole point. The outlaw Instagrammers have more in common with graffiti artists, another subculture of underground creatives who make their work in the cracks of the urban landscape."




So, what do you think about these kinds of explorers? Do you like them? Do you like their work and the way they share it? Is this the direction Urban Exploration is heading, or is this just a fad?

#instagramcansuckmycock

(first and last time I will ever use a hashtag)

They couldn't care less about the preservation of locations. It's all about the "fame" for them. Screw 'em. I hope they run into crackheads with blood-thirsty pitbulls.

IDGAF

Instagram = square format

Plus or minus the fake analogue processing.

That's all there is to it.

I'm not saying there is no merit there, or aesthetic value.

Everything photo-trendy has a measure of aesthetic value, if you look for it.

But I'm all about that merit stuff.

Film is better.

I don't mind Instagram explorers. Sure they are usually younger, get more fame quickly and process their pictures with autofilters, but beside that they seem to actually do some legit explorations. I just watched Demidism's instagram page this morning and I don't have anything to complain about, his stuff is pretty good.

I only pinterest explore.

Posted by Jason I only pinterest explore.

shit, son. get on my level >>> myspace.com/urbex00r

Posted by General Zod Instagram = square format Film is better.

Isn't 120 film also "square format"? or an I misunderstanding this?

I'll always be old manishly against people taking DSLR photos then passing them off as cell phone insty's.

Around this area, all I see are the same 3 spots everyday posted to ig.

I think they're too reckless.
From what I've seen there's a lot of people hanging their legs off the sides of buildings.
In my honest opinion, that's incredibly stupid.
Someone's going to get hurt, whether it be because of that or something else, and someone's going to get a building torn down, or arrested, or whatever. They're endangering the preservation of the locations.

It's mainly only for the fame anyways. The pictures are layered with awful iPhone filters and look like they've been processed with satan's piss anyways.

My girlfriend tried showing me Instagram the other day and my head almost exploded. I just stay out of it.

How much does a hipster weigh?

...an Instagram.


Hipster Jokes

I really enjoy their photos however they blow spots up which sucks. I don't think I'll ever be able to safely climb a bridge in NYC due to some of Humza's comments on his news interview

They are co-opting a subculture they appear to have no part of (based off the blurb posted about them) by attempting to switch up the ideology as to why they do it. Their immaturity and lack of knowledge of urban exploration is clearly displayed in quotes such as “urban explorers take photos mainly to document that they’ve been there, while for Deas the image is the whole point.”

Therein lies my point— you can’t generalize an entire movement and why each individual urban explorer takes photos/explores. We all have different reasons/motivation that switch daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.

It’s mainstream people like this who think they are “outlaws” that popularize and bring unwanted attention to a scene and ruin it for everyone who actually know what’s up.

whats an instagram?

Have the Urbex Police been informed about these impostors?

Oh shit... the Mainstream is here!

While I can see the appeal of letting others know that "Hey, this is cool, and I went there", it really is bad in the long term. Here's a couple of reasons.


Personal:

-Everybody knows you as "that explorer dude" and want to know where the good places are.
-You get a reputation, which makes it harder to stay inconspicuous.
-Selfies= evidence of trespassing. Also, selfies don't equal art.


Community:

-As the community becomes more well known, it becomes harder fore all of us to fly under the radar. We don't want a variation of the "no skateboarding" signs to be made for urbexing.
-The cops begin to associate the community with "lol I'm so cool" kids.
-Floods of bad pictures.
-Vandals and scrappers have an easier time finding pristine locations.


Now, I think that if you know someone who might be truly interested, go ahead and take them on an explore. But instagramming for the fame just isn't worth it, in a pros and cons comparison.

You don't understand... SOMEONE IS DOING URBEX WRONG AND MUST BE CORRECTED. IT IS IN THE RULE BOOK!