Jennifer Jeffrey

“I love looking back at my feed and remembering where I was and how I felt”

Jennifer used to work in molecular biology research. She had it all planned out until she decided to move to California to help set up a tech company instead. Now based in San Francisco she runs her own communications agency and shares photos on Instagram whenever she gets a moment. She's not a big fan over overusing apps and has been named as one of Mashable's top 15 Instagramers and one of 32 Instagrammers to follow on Buzzfeed.

As a passionate communicator would you say that photography and the written word are equally powerful means of communication?

Equally powerful, yes, but very different. A photograph allows the viewer to project his or her own experience on it, to form a personal, private narrative around the image.

Joe McNally said that "Our pictures are our footprints. Its the best way to tell people we were here." Do you think that's the big appeal of Instagram?

That’s a lovely quote. To tell people we were here, yes, and also to remind ourselves of where we’ve been. I love looking back at my feed and remembering where I was and how I felt.

Can you tell us a little bit about the evolution of your Instagram journey: when and how it started, and how and why you think you came to be so well followed.

I loved Instagram immediately - I found it via a link on Twitter, and signed up right away. In the early days, there was a lot of negativity towards it, people talking about how it wasn't "real" photography, and how filters were cheating, but I quickly realized they weren't seeing what I was seeing. There was so much creativity and excitement at the beginning, and it was wonderful to watch people develop a signature style. Today, there are many photographers on Instagram - professional and not - who inspire me with their point of view, the stories they tell about the part of the world where they live, the incredible shots they get of the people and places around them. It makes the world smaller and more intimate, and sometimes it blows my mind. Like being able to follow artist Ai Wei Wei or see David Guttenfelder's photos of North Korea.

I'm a strategist and writer, so my projects often take weeks or months (even years, in the case of my novel) to complete - but with Instagram, I can share a photo in a matter of seconds. It's so nice to be able to have this one thing that I can share right now, instead of weeks or months later.

As for why I came to be widely followed, it's not because of my mad skills - ha! Rather, I was one of the people Instagram put on the "Suggested Users to Follow" list in the early days, and that's how my following grew so big. I'm grateful for it, and wish I had more time to develop my style and take more photos. I'll get there eventually. ;)

Is the mobile community something that you get involved with much?

No, I don’t. My schedule is so busy – I run a small business, and I’m writing a novel, and my social life is crap. I see the meetups happening, and wish I could join, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

“My social life is crap”

How often do you download and try out new apps?

I used to do it often, until I had multiple screens full of apps that I rarely or never touched. Now I’m far less likely to download a new app – I need to be convinced before I add another icon to the clutter. ;)

Do you see mobile photography evolving into something that all professionals will at some point have to embrace?

Perhaps not. As mobile photography becomes ubiquitous, it’s important for professionals to differentiate, and one way to do that is to go the opposite direction – honing a skillset with cameras and lenses that create images that aren’t possible via mobile photography. Easier to stand out that way.