Download for iOS, Android, or Windows 10
News
Get Involved
Around the Community
To see more of Aki’s nail art, follow @aki_newnail.ny on Instagram.
No #tinycanvas challenge is too great for nail artist Aki Hirayama (@aki_newnail.ny) — even if it involves creating portraits of pop stars or pop artists. “Recently someone asked me to paint all the different faces of Marilyn Monroe on their nails, an exact replica of Andy Warhol’s artwork,” says Aki, a manicurist who lives in New York. “It took four hours to complete.” Aki also loves the collaborative nature of each manicure. “I would love to do Mariah Carey’s nails someday,” she says. “She demands perfection and I would be up for it.”
Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags chosen by Instagram’s Community Team. For a chance to be featured on the Instagram blog, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project.
The goal of this weekend’s hashtag project is to photograph the places you or a fellow artist go to be creative. The project takes inspiration from London-based artist and guest curator Helen Downie (@unskilledworker), best known for her fashion-inspired portraits and paintings. Here are Helen’s tips to get started:
PROJECT RULES: Please add the #WHPinthestudio hashtag only to photos and videos taken over this weekend and only submit your own visuals to the project. If you include music in your video submissions, please only use music to which you own the rights. Any tagged photo or video taken over the weekend is eligible to be featured next week.
To see more of Olivia’s pastries and desserts, follow @livforcake on Instagram.
Baker Olivia Bogacki (@livforcake) turns to cozy, seasonal desserts every time Halloween rolls around. “I love pumpkins, cinnamon, nutmeg — all of these flavors say fall to me,” says Olivia, who is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Olivia was introduced to cake decorating in 2009 when she took a class at a local crafts store, and in 2014, she decided to continue her education by going to pastry school. “Cakes, for sure, are my favorite thing to do,” she says. “The most challenging part is that baking tends to be very precise, and I often have a vision of what I want the final product to look like. Most of the time it doesn’t get there and I want to redo it.” Her favorite part? When the cakes do live up to her standards, or even exceed them. Olivia will be celebrating this Halloween with horror movies, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and digging into a slice or two, of course, of cake.
To see more David’s photography, follow @mahikerbiker on Instagram.
All year long, David Whitemyer (@mahikerbiker) visits spooky sites across the country. “My love of history, architecture and exploring new places attracts me to abandoned buildings,” says David, a museum exhibit designer based in Boston. “I treat them with respect, never vandalizing and never taking anything.” He often combines eerie images with a clever pun or quip — this photo of a barber’s chair from the Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania was captioned with the words “Shear Madness.” David is adventurous when it comes to seeking out new places to photograph, but come Halloween, he kicks back to take in the festivities: “I enjoy sitting on the front porch on Halloween night, with a glass of wine, and seeing everyone’s costumes.”
To learn more about Victoria, follow @victoriajustice on Instagram.
The first time actress and singer Victoria Justice (@victoriajustice) saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show she was 11 years old. Flash forward (or do the time warp) 12 years, and Victoria is starring in the new version of the 1970s American cult classic, airing tonight on FOX. “I dreamed of getting the role of Janet in Rocky Horror and it happened,” says Victoria. The song “Don’t Dream It, Be It” was Victoria’s favorite scene to shoot: “It’s visually beautiful and we’re all in the water, moving really gracefully.” What’s up next for Victoria is still in the works. “I’m curious to see what project makes me feel really excited that I’ll want to be a part of it,” she says.
To see more of Francine’s photographs, check out @fotografeumaideia on Instagram. Follow @instagrambrasil to discover more stories from the region.
(This interview was conducted in Portuguese.)
You nearly smell the earth and woods in Francine de Mattos’ (@fotografeumaideia) photos. A resident of Salete, a small town of 7,000 people in Santa Catarina, Brazil, she shares snapshots of the region’s scenery. “When I am not taking pictures for work, I go for a ride on my motorcycle. On these trips, I rediscover the place where I live,” the 25-year-old photographer says. “I love to hear a good story from someone who has lived for a long time.” Francine fell for photography 10 years ago while still in high school. “My motivation is nostalgia. I lost my maternal grandmother before I got a camera, and so I do not have a picture of her that I took. It is this absence that makes me want to photograph everything and everyone.”
To see more of Ziyah’s work, follow @ziyahgafic on Instagram.
Ziyah Gafic (@ziyahgafic) has his #EyesOn on a buried past, beneath a landscape once known as Yugoslavia. “I was a teenager during war time,” says the Sarajevo-based photographer, whose world was shattered when his nation was engulfed by ethnic conflict, some 20 years ago. “I was raised and shaped by war.” Now a professional photojournalist, Ziyah’s work has taken him around the world from Saudi Arabia to Zimbabwe. He uses images of his homeland to seek closure with its troubled history: “Nature overtakes us and covers our misdeeds.”
To see more of Ashley’s designs, check out @ashleyrosecouture.
It’s ironic, but true — designer Ashley Rose (@ashleyrosecouture) can’t remember the last time she put on a costume for Halloween. “Even as a kid, I didn’t really do Halloween. I was always more fascinated with what other people were wearing.” A little more than five years ago, the 28-year-old from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, made her first corset dress on a form and posted a picture. “That was the motivation that I needed to keep doing it,” she says.
Ever since, Ashley has been experimenting, collaborating with other artists and musicians and “making it up as she goes” with her sometimes-surreal, sometimes-macabre and always beautifully intricate dresses, jumpsuits, headpieces and more. Specific places inspire her designs — abandoned theaters, haunted Victorian houses — and her current collection is based off a home in Philadelphia; fairy tale meets circus, she describes it. What will she be doing on Halloween this year? “Passing out candy, and going to a party that I’m not dressing up for.”
Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags. For a chance to be featured, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project.
WHPfreetime asked community members to make photos and videos inspired by what they enjoy doing in their spare time. Each week, we feature some of our favorite submissions from the project, but be sure to check out the rest here.
