In its continued push to create more curated photography and video content, Instagram recently highlighted its top female photographers on Instagram for the photo app’s millions of users, shedding light on some of the most talented industry professionals using the social medium to share their work.
The list is impressively substantive too, ranging from renowned celebrity photographers to Middle Eastern photojournalists. Instagram should also be praised in highlighting some extremely talented and accomplished women in what to this day is still a heavily male-dominated industry.
Linda Lomelino
@linda_lomelino
https://www.instagram.com/p/5UltUAR_an/
Hailing from Sweden’s west coast, Linda Lomelino has created a unique combination of culinary blogging and food photography on her blog, “Call Me Cupcake” Her work pairs artful stills of her cooking process, along with recipes for some royally elaborate sweets. Her post, “Pear cardamom cake with brown butter frosting & chocolate glaze,” for example, is a great example of how Lomelino elevates food blogging to a captivating art form.
Peggy Sirota
@peggysirota
https://www.instagram.com/p/6y9Ju1EgHt/
Many photographers will already be familiar with the work of Peggy Sirota, one of the most popular and vibrant celebrity photographers working today. Her credentials are intimidating–having shot everyone from Bill Murray to Katy Perry to George W. Bush, most often for publications such as GQ, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone.
Sirota’s reputation in the industry is unique, however, for her lack of technical emphasis in her portraits, known instead for her unique ability to get celebrities out of their comfort zone and capture them in unique, genuine moments. Or, as Drew Barrymore put it:
“I think Peggy has this magical magnet inside her. A lot of people play music, put you in a studio, tell you to ‘please smile, dance, jump up and down,’ but there’s something different about her, about who she is as a human being. If that’s her intention she actually magnetically pulls it out of people in an authentic way,” Barrymore said.
https://www.instagram.com/p/8MyGDukgM2/
Katie Orlinsky
@katieorlinsky
https://www.instagram.com/p/9FJakVpnTJ/
Shooting for the New York Times, the New Yorker and Al Jazeera America, Katie Orlinsky’s awareness of social issues and international politics shows through her photojournalism. She is currently an Artist in Residence with the Levine/Leavitt artists’ agency, and has spanned the world to produce her work, covering topics from the monstrous Nepalese sex trade to gruelling bobsled treks in the Yukon. Her work weaves captivating portraiture with colorful landscapes for some unforgettable imagery.
https://www.instagram.com/p/gJHZAcJneJ/
Danielle Villasana
@davillasana
https://www.instagram.com/p/8l7hXXv46f/
Danielle Villasana is among the younger photojournalists in the industry, having graduated from college not long ago, but she already has a stunning portfolio and an impressive list of accomplishments.
She’s on the Emerging Talent Roster at Getty Images Reportage, co-founded Everyday Latin America, a project on Instagram part of the Everyday community that combats stereotypes in the media. She’s also traveled through more than 30 countries throughout Europe and West Africa, and has taught photography in Peru through a US Embassy grant.
She also claims to work by the advice of her mentor, Donna De Cesare: “You are a human being first and a journalist second.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/08Zyl7v429/
Tamara Abdul Hadi
@tamarabdul
https://www.instagram.com/p/YTdlIjyoqQ/
From the United Arab Emirates to Montreal then back to UAE, then Lebanon again, then–well, you get the picture: Tamara Abdul Hadi is an incredibly well-traveled photojournalist who’s been on staff at the New York Times, and shot for a number of other publications while covering the middle east. She has also traveled to Palestine to teach photography and empowerment, and helped found the Rawiya Collective, a collective of Middle Eastern photographers. Her work displays her talent along with a subject matter that can only be found in some of the most colorful parts of the world.
