Who do you follow on Instagram? Here are eight clever feeds that we’ve been enjoying…
Above: Artist Alexey Kondakov drops characters and scenes from classic paintings into contemporary photographs.
Healthy-ish features genius cooking tips, food facts (did you know there’s a non-spicy habanero pepper called a Honey Zepper?) and product recommendations. Just don’t look before lunch.
The Montreal-based female photographers behind 1001fesses_project are on a mission to collect 1001 beautiful bums. Love.
Cj Hendry hand draws portraits of paints with — wait for it — colored pencils. (We know.)
The Conscious Kid Library offers diverse children’s book recommendations and resources for parents and educators to reduce bias and empower youth.
Moment Junkie features sweet (and often hilarious) documentary photos from weddings. His captions are pitch-perfect; the one of the groom above says, “happy ring reminder.”
Ugly Fruit and Veg celebrates imperfect produce to fight food waste around the world. That tomato duck!
The Ma Books feed is so comforting to browse, with lovely motherhood photos next to devastatingly beautiful quotes. Like this one from Emily Dickinson, “Forever is composed of nows.”
Any Instagram feeds you’re loving these days?
P.S. More fun Instagram feeds, and when to take photos of your children.
(Alexey Kondakov Instagram found via Kottke. Cj Hendry Instagram found via Hither & Thither.)
When my brothers and I were growing up, we would get so excited about irregularities in fruit or veggies. We would all want to eat It! That duck tomato… OMG… We would have been giddy! Lol
You should also check out @theclaykitchen – a NY-based 13 yo creates amazing miniatures of food out of clay!
I recently rediscovered Jamie Beck of “@AnnStreetStudio” and spent an HOUR yesterday scrolling through her amazing photos of her year in Provence, France. She has been shooting these amazing still-lifes and self-portraits that look like oil paintings. You should feature her for one of these Instagram round-ups or better yet a Beauty/Personal Style post. (Maybe you already did and that’s how I started following her in the first place, I’ve forgotten haha!)
TOTALLY AGREE. ALL OF HER PICTURES LOOK LIKE PAINTINGS. QUITE BEAUTIFUL.
Love watching videos on the drawing/calligraphy accounts! It’s so therapeutic. Especially love @chrystalizabeth and @moss.ink. xx
Check out stilomio_jewelry! Beautiful (and- even for me- affordable) jewelry, great pictures and the cutest dog wearing their necklaces. Love it!
OK, I have a secret weapon I am willing to share with the CoJ gang – I like to find thoughtful gifts for friends/family by paying attention to what they follow (and like) on Instagram. I just found my fiancé a beautiful leather watch strap for his birthday (from @clubpatina) that he had “liked” and he was SO surprised and stoked. Of course, I suppose this works best for people you’re close with to avoid the creepy factor :)
GREAT idea! I love this.
My absolute FAVOURITE at the moment is @disastersofathirtysomething. She and her husband (@adventuresofathirtysomething) are currently travelling around the world, and Sarah posts beautiful pictures with HILARIOUS captions. She also writes a daily Peak and Pit of the day, which are just fantastic. Well worth a follow!!
Just followed her, thanks for sharing – you’re right, hilarious! I commend those with great, entertaining feeds. It’s not easy and takes a lot of creativity!
Thank you!! You gave my Instagram a new life again.
My current faves include:
@kylekotajarvi for amazing nature and landscape photos captured in the PNW and around the world.
@onebouquetperday is a lovely inspirational Swedish flower/vintage combo
@grin_land for more Scandi beauty, very folksy
I like imperfect produce – Its kinda like the one you posted but they deliver ”ugly produce” baskets in a few major cities http://instagram.com/imperfectproduce
Also, I love The Atlas of Beauty – stunning pictures of women from all over the globe http://instagram.com/the.atlas.of.beauty
And “Perhaps you need a little Guatemala” will make you want to fly down and visit ;)
http://instagram.com/perhapsyouneedalittleguatemala
Ahhhhh I love these! Instagram keeps on surprising me with SUCH creative people/creators, it really makes my heart flutter. Thanks a lot for this list, I feel like I’m about to follow most of them!
Joanne | Life in Blue Skies
@tarin_thomas for capturing life on the Lower East Side and beautiful jewelry to boot.
I love @themakingtable — beautiful, sophisticated art education account centered around teaching kids to make and appreciate art.
That’s my friend Krisanne’s creation! She is fabulous and so full of brilliant ideas.
These are great! I like following several travel ones like @smallcrazy and @theboldbrunette, and also several photography ones like @richard_beresford_harris. It mixes up the feeds of friends.
My husband has a little instagram game http://instagram.com/1.little.thing where he posts two photos daily that are identical except for 1 small change. At first I thought it was kind of a dumb idea , but now I am completely hooked as are all my friends and family. We all race to see who can find the difference first and text each other when we find it!!
oh my gosh i love that idea!
@thebearandtheaxe makes bags perfect for fall, @jerryoftheday for daily laughs and @feministfightclub for women power pep talks
Have you seen the old masters project on IG? Sylwia Makris recreates old paintings through photography. The photos and resemblance to the paintings are incredible. https://www.instagram.com/sylwiamakris/
Thank you for introducing The Conscious Kid Library! I have been looking for some new books that have diverse main characters (Some scary statistics about the low, low numbers of non-white main characters in kids books!) and this is a great resource. Yay!
definitely! here are a few more, if you’d like to see:
https://cupofjo.com/2016/10/raising-race-conscious-children/
https://cupofjo.com/2016/10/childrens-books-featuring-kids-of-color/
Just want to attest that the non-spicy habenero is real, and so, so, so tasty! If you get your hands on any, do yourself a favor and eat at least one raw out of hand just like you would any delicious fruit! They are sweet and flavorful!
Moment Junkie is my new fave, thanks Joanna.
I once received a basket of fruits and vegetables from a friends garden. Many looked nothing like what I buy in my grocery store. No perfect round shapes, and some were down right ugly. But, they tasted amazing. Years later I read an article about how ugly food could solve world hunger. Thousands of weird shaped, imperfect looking fruits and vegetables are tossed each year because they don’t make the cut as being presentable to sell in grocery stores. Gasp! Shame on me for not understanding this. The Instagram account you shared is hopefully going to bring more deserved attention to this important subject!
Yes, a few years ago,l I think National Geographic did an article about plant varieties that are edible but not aesthetically pleasing. It was a part of their year discussing how to feed 7 billion people.
Yes Angela, that was the article! After reading it, I felt so bad for wondering why my friend would give me a basket of really ugly produce. Never admitted that to her, but I have now sent her the Ugly Fruit and Veg IG account with my whole confession….
Okay, as an art history nerd, I am in LOVE with Alexey Kondakov’s work! And those color pencil paint portraits…I’m dying. I can’t believe I’ve never seen these before. These are all such great feeds…now I have some serious Instagram stalking to do. ;)
Love the Ugly Fruits and Veg! What a hoot!
@ariellevey for G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S photography
@adornthehunter sells jewelry but posts some of the funniest memes
@violetclair and @theawkwardyeti for awesome illustrations
@nowservingboba a tiny black french bulldog because duh
I use to work with the guy behind @goatstigram – so random, so adorable.
Whoops, got cut off – I also love @zilkerbark out of Austin. I’ve moved out of Texas (and got rid of most of my Austin-specific accounts), but I still follow it! Some of the best pup photography ever and he frequently uses his following to support a good cause.
@specialbooksbyspecialkids is incredible.
You have to experience how beautiful & satisfying Symmetry Breakfast is! A daily chronicle of one husband’s breakfast creations for his husband: https://www.instagram.com/symmetrybreakfast/?hl=en
Oh, my gosh. Thank you for this – just got lost in the FAQ of their website. Love.
I could cry looking at those The Ma Book photos. Before I had a child I wouldn’t have really had a reaction to those photos except to think, cute! But now, I am instantly in awe of each situation; making it out of the house in matching fro’s and coats? What an accomplishment! Lugging and lifting those heavy bodies, tired as hell and loving the good moments.
what a sweet observation, emmie xo
Ok, those PENCIL DRAWN paint portraits? What? I’ll be over here collecting my brain matter off the floor if anyone needs me.
hahahahahaha i KNOW! i honestly don’t understand it. i keep staring at them and still can’t figure it out. she’s a genius.
@phoebewahl – incredible artist based in Bellingham, WA
@mothersbefore has been a fav. There was one post a while back that I keep thinking about: https://www.instagram.com/p/BV8Dk-JhwMn/?taken-by=mothersbefore Here is the caption: “Before she was married, while my mother was working her way up in the tech industry in the 80s, she built the house that I grew up in. I knew that my whole life but finding this photo of her laying the foundation and stonework of our chimney was such a good reminder that she did all the work herself. She’d never built a house before and didn’t know what she was doing – my two favorite mistakes are that all the stairs were built for her size 7 feet, and her bathroom doesn’t have mirrors above the sinks (for men to shave)!” Imagine!!!
“all the stairs were built for her size 7 feet” = LOVE this.
thank you for introducing me to this. since becoming a mom, I am more and more fascinated by photos of stories of my mom before she was my mom. I always look at photos of me and wonder what my son will think when he’s older. Plus I love Edan Lepucki’s writing, so this is a double win. xo
This instagram about 1001 bums reminds me another one – @projeto365nus – full of beautiful stylish naked people (almost all naked, or it would be against Intagram’s rules)
@lifeofpikelet (rescue doggos with their foster friends, sometimes piglets, they usually just do photos but i love their mom’s australian accent when they have videos on their story), @wolfgang2242 (he lives down the street from me in denver! so many rescue senior pups), @bearytaleleatherco (the BEST insta stories – she is a 20-something leatherworker and shows her amazing intensive process, which sometimes involves eating cheetos with chopsticks so she can keep her hands clean to work the leather), @girlsatlibrary (the.best.inspiration.), @iss (international space station – need i say more?)
love these, christina!!! thanks for the recs.
oh also! @roundtheworldgirl who is admittedly a paid instagram adventurer, but she is just so bad-ass that you can’t blame her for getting paid for it. she was a friend-of-a-friend in college and i feel cooler for just being in the same hemisphere / at a dumb halloween house party with her once.
p.s. when joanna replies to your comment… floating away on a cloud now <3
I looove the bum one!!
As for me, I mainly just follow dog accounts. :)
sameeeeeeee. all the dogs.
Is anyone else massively troubled by that photo of the lemon?!? Trypophobia warning! AAAUGGGHHH!!!!
I had to google that word! Phobia words are the coolest. My parents backyard lemon tree occasionally made one of these. They resemble a “buddha hands” lemon and have the same juice but way more zest real estate to use than a regular lemon.
@sophiefelts is a mom of 4 and an amazing florist!
Wow, just spent an hour reading through the Ma Books. After a rough/anxiety ridden/tearful week, reading through smart, gentle accounts of motherhood (and gorgeous photography) was exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for sharing
Celeste Barber makes me laugh out loud every time.
Thanks for the recs, I just followed a bunch of these! Those paint pictures with colored pencil are SERIOUSLY blowing my mind right now.
My IG faves are about as varied as my musical taste (read: nonsensical and broad) but the ones bringing me the most joy these days are @topfrancephoto (gives the hugest wanderlust but man, I just love that whole country!)
@she_explores (all about creative and curious women outdoors – there’s also a great corresponding podcast!)
@carolinecala (I miss seeing her on CoJ, and her most recent haikus are just hilarious)
@loki_the_wolfdog (who is probably the most handsome hunk of wolfdog flesh out there and is always posing in gorgeous places).
Thanks again for this round-up, I just loved it!
Yes! Caroline’s haikus are killing me. So good.
I just love food blogs, I could drool over photos of food all day. I love following Ambitious Kitchen on Instagram because she takes wonderful photos of not just her foodie creations, but also of her active lifestyle! She makes health conscience recipes and shows the lifestyle she lives, without being too fitness blogger-y. I actually spotted her at the airport once and introduced myself as the biggest fan of her amazing turkey chili and whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffins, LOL! We had a good laugh about it, I was glad I said hi!