There should always be a choice. Facebook serves as an alternative to VK, and VSCO plays that role for Instagram — though for some reason it remains far less popular. Yet within this Instagram alternative you can find a wealth of extraordinary photographs, capable of inspiring just as powerfully as the feeds of Instagram's most celebrated users.
Carlos Bravo — vsco.co/carlosbravo
Silence is present in every photograph by Carlos Bravo. The absence of bustle and turbulence is just as defining a feature of his work. It evokes the feeling of wandering through the deserted summer streets of a large city — with a lingering sense that something is about to begin, or to appear.
Brandon Shackelford — vsco.co/bshackelford
Brandon Shackelford is from Arkansas and currently works as a front-end developer at VSCO. These photographs are about nature and the city — about things that live by their own rhythm, and that look naturally spare in their composition and colour. It feels like wandering through a city, or revisiting the memory of a great trip. Light is always present in his shots: sunlight, or the bright tones of a carefully chosen palette. Everything looks effortless, pleasing and genuinely inspiring.
Sotiris Bougas — vsco.co/sotirisbougas
Greek photographer Sotiris Bougas counts himself among the devotees of minimalist aesthetics. In his photographs, heavy masses lose their weight entirely. This kind of play with the geometry of space never fails to draw the eye.
Daniel Casson — vsco.co/daniel-casson
This British photographer has a substantial body of work in which he deploys intensely contrasting colours. Daniel Casson also constructs his compositions in such a way that the viewer's eye is drawn irresistibly along the lines of the frame — following a road stretching into the distance, water cascading in chaotic freefall, or the gaze of the photograph's subject. Our thanks to him for cold landscapes and soft light.
Dean F — vsco.co/deanf
Working in classic black and white, this architect isolates the compelling geometry of buildings with precision and clarity. What is striking is how a change of angle seems to transform the very character of the architecture. Against natural landscapes, the clean lines of the city's component elements emerge — lines that somehow echo and recall the diagrams found in biology textbooks.
Teresa Freitas — vsco.co/teresafreitas
To see the world in pink, to show the world in pink — this is not about optimism or life in a fairy tale, but about the desire to reveal the beauty of a place. And to invent its own story. You might call it a harmless and aesthetically pleasing kind of surrealism. A modern storyteller from Lisbon — our thanks.
Luiza — vsco.co/heyluisa
This, again, is the realm of fairy tales. But these photographs are not about the beauty of a place — they are about the wonder or magic that can be glimpsed within it. Or that might be taking place there. Browsing the photographs and reading Luiza Azevedo's captions, one gets the impression of someone broadcasting live from a fantastical world, recounting the remarkable things that happened to her during the day.
Pavel Dovgal — vsco.co/paveldovgal
Pavel Dovgal is a producer, musician, composer and designer based in Berlin who clearly has a fondness for dark palettes. His profile feels cohesive and atmospheric. But there is little point describing it — see for yourself.
Mara Lazaridou — vsco.co/maralazaridou
Beautiful simplicity. Pure lightness and inspiration. These photographs are a pleasure to look at — you want to linger over them. This profile is full of sunshine and joy. It feels like the tail end of May or the beginning of June, when the smell of grass still hangs in the air and you can catch the scent of freshly unfurled leaves. How else to describe such lightness and beauty? Mara Lazaridou is from Greece and works as a fashion photographer.
Jared Chambers — vsco.co/jaredchambers
Jared Chambers is a photographer based in Los Angeles. There is a great deal of landscape beauty here. Stylish, light-filled photographs through which you can trace the author's travels across different seasons. And perhaps that is exactly what makes it so compelling — when looking through someone's photographs, you get the feeling that you, too, are travelling alongside them.
Photo travel is a beautiful thing. On social media, it rarely matters whether the journey is through the real world or through one person's imaginary realm. This selection, like the one we put together earlier —a selection of 10 Instagram profiles— is proof of that.
