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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.
The goal of #WHPcolorful was to create photos and videos that pop with color. Each week, we feature some of our favorite submissions from the project, but be sure to check out the rest here.
This month, we’re sharing the stories of African-American community members in celebration of #BlackHistoryMonth, which runs through February in the US.
“Being socially aware has always been a very strong value in my family and in my life,” says American director Melina Matsoukas (@msmelina). “I really try to use my platform to say something, to create some sort of change and initiate a conversation that is not happening — or continue a conversation.”
The two-time Grammy winner’s work has proven that art remains a powerful engine to encourage dialogue. “I’ve always loved this idea of political art. We’ve seen that through the civil rights movement, and it’s definitely continued now with a lot of artists, in music, TV and film,” says Melina. And her collaborations with iconic artists like Beyoncé (@beyonce) are no accident. “I like people who are courageous and who aren’t scared of saying something that’s different than what everybody else is saying.”
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To see more of Ava’s life on and off set, follow @directher on Instagram.
Growing up, Ava DuVernay (@directher) would wait outside the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles with her Aunt Denise and sisters to watch Academy Award presenters go into rehearsals. Today, she’s the first black female director to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Her film “13th” digs into the 13th Amendment, the change to the US Constitution ending slavery, and analyzes its entanglement with the criminalization of African-Americans today. “I’m grateful to all the activists and scholars who allowed me to interview them and feature their ideas and insights on this important issue,” says Ava, who interviews almost 40 people in the documentary, including social justice activists like Angela Davis and politicians Cory Booker and Newt Gingrich. “Each person was like a professor and I was a happy student in their masterclass.”
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 this weekend is to create photos and videos that pop with color. Here’s how to get started:
PROJECT RULES: Please add the #WHPcolorful 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 Jimmy’s life on and off set, follow @jimmykimmel on Instagram.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) will host the 89th Academy Awards on Sunday night. As you can see from this moment captured in between rehearsals, it’s clear he’s taking his duties very seriously.
For more stories from Brazil, follow @instagrambrasil.
(This interview was conducted in Portuguese.)
Favelagrafia (@favelagrafia) is a photo collective, bringing together nine photographers living in nine Rio de Janeiro hilltop slums known as favelas. “The objective is to show the potential of these places and to tell the stories of important characters who make up the favelas,” says 29-year-old Josiane Santana dos Santos (@eujosiie), a photographer, journalism student and one of the founders of the project. “We want to break down the barriers of prejudice and stereotyped visions that exist.”
This is one of Josiane’s favorite photos, featuring her friend, a 23-year-old dancer named Ygor Raphael. “I made this photo to show the artistic and cultural potential that the Complexo do Alemão favela has, showing that our main weapon is art,” she says.
This story is part of an ongoing series featuring models who are redefining industry standards and making sure there’s room on the #RunwayForAll.
“#RunwayForAll is about unconditional love and allowing anybody that has a talent to have an equal playing field. Diversity is beautiful.” —Naomi Campbell (@iamnaomicampbell)
One of the original supermodels, Naomi has walked in countless shows and has staying power in the industry. As for the keys to her success, Naomi credits her intuition and spirituality. “I’m so blessed to be able to work with the same people since I was 16 years old and have their support.”
To see more of Josh’s photography, follow @joshwool on Instagram.
Josh Wool’s (@joshwool) self-described approach to portraiture is incredibly slow and unapologetically simple. Using equipment and techniques that are more than a century old, the Brooklyn, New York-based artist painstakingly extracts his images from a process that begins with photographic plates and developing chemistry that he makes himself. From there, his portraits are crafted from a conversation, natural light when possible and the removal of any extraneous details or distractions.
“The folks in these pictures are artists, musicians, photographers, creatives and friends,” says Josh. “There’s a certain intangible thing that draws me to choose the people I photograph. In most cases, it’s some aspect of their persona — sometimes it’s their strength, others it’s a sense of vulnerability. With others, it’s something I just can’t put my finger on, but I know I need to photograph them.”
To see more of Maritana’s journey and art, follow @maritanaquaresma on Instagram.
While undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Brazilian artist Maritana Quaresma (@maritanaquaresma) transformed her Instagram feed into a cancer diary. “I wrote and drew when I was sick. I didn’t wait until I felt better to write about it,” says the 29-year-old from Rio de Janeiro.
After several non-Portuguese-speaking friends expressed concern over her illness, Maritana added English captions. “All over the world people were sick too, and they felt very strong when they saw my drawings. I started getting messages from here in Latin America, sometimes Europe, sometimes Asia,” she explains. “It was like I had a power that I didn’t realize, and I could make people feel good.” After two surgeries and six months of chemotherapy, Maritana is in remission. “I don’t regret it, even if I have my limitations. This is me.”