I posted a picture I took for the “Photographs that Lie” assignment on my Instagram. I use Instagram pretty frequently and felt the photograph was already in-line with a lot of content I typically post. The picture – a photo of my friend Nirupa staring forlornly out of a window, acknowledging the camera – felt like a modern retelling of Rapunzel so I captioned it “Let down your hair.” None of the comments seemed to recognize it was for a photo assignment. One friend commented that she liked the shot, another just commented “lol” and Nirupa aptly replied “or my keys.” It was interesting to see that a staged photograph was accepted as a normal, standard post of mine by most of my friends. I think it would have garnered a different response on Facebook, where it would reach a wider audience. However, it’s pretty standard for people to share art and photos on Instagram in addition to personal photographs so I can see how the lines between a staged and candid photo could blur on Instagram.

Photograph I posted on Instagram

-Sadie