Instagram Influencer

Instagram Influencer Releases "Authentic London Guide," Photographs Self At 47 Instagram-Friendly Locations

LONDON — An Instagram influencer with 350,000 followers has published a "Definitive Guide To Authentic London," comprised entirely of locations chosen for their aesthetic appeal in photographs, with particular emphasis on places that photograph well with morning light, places that have recently been renovated to look "vintage," and places where one can stand artistically against interesting architecture while someone else takes approximately 147 variations of the same photo before posting the three that do not look simultaneously bored and exhausted.

The guide, which the influencer describes as revealing "the real London that tourists do not see," is in fact revealing the London that Instagram influencers have collectively decided is aesthetically pleasing enough to photograph, which is a subset of London that overlaps almost completely with places that are either newly renovated, extremely expensive, or both. The guide's inclusion of a "secret" coffee shop in Brick Lane — secret in the sense that it is on Instagram's location map and has been visited by approximately 80,000 people who have read similar guides — suggests either that the influencer has a very generous definition of "secret," or that secret has been redefined to mean "places I discovered via Instagram that I am now sharing via Instagram."

What "Authentic London" Means

"Authentic" in influencer terminology means "photographically interesting," which is distinct from authentic in English, which means "genuinely from or representative of that place." A location is authentic, by influencer standards, if it is old-looking, if it has character, if it fits an aesthetic, and if other influencers have deemed it authentic, which means authenticity is determined not by whether a place reflects actual London life but by whether it reflects how Instagram collectively wants to see London.

For context on what London is actually like beyond the Instagram frame, local guides and reviews attempt to distinguish between what tourists should see and what Londoners actually experience, though the distinction is increasingly blurred by the simple fact that influencers have photographed so much of London that entire neighbourhoods are now experienced as locations for taking photos rather than as places to live or work.

The Photography Problem

The phenomenon of Instagram tourism has fundamentally changed how some London locations function. The Instagram-famous cafe is now a cafe where people go to take photos of themselves at the cafe, which is distinct from going to a cafe to experience the cafe. The Instagram-famous street is now a street where people go to stand in the middle of traffic taking photos while actual Londoners try to walk past them. The Instagram-famous view is now a view that is experienced primarily through a phone screen for the purpose of uploading it to Instagram so other people can see the view they also did not experience directly.

One London resident who lives on an Instagram-famous street described it: "I live somewhere that is apparently beautiful because Instagram says so. Every weekend, people stand in front of my building taking photos. They are not interested in the building, they are interested in having a photo of the building. They leave. My building is still here. This is not tourism, it is spectating remotely. I am not even sure they like London. They like the idea of having been to London."

What's Missing From The Guide

The "Authentic London" guide, predictably, does not include the parts of London that are most authentically London: the bits where people actually live, where the streets are not photogenic, where the restaurants are unremarkable but good, where there are no Instagram hashtags because nobody is interested in photographing them. Instead, the guide curates a version of London that is London's brand identity rather than London's actual identity — London as seen through the aesthetic preferences of people whose job is to make everywhere look interesting.

For alternative perspectives on what London is actually like beyond the aesthetically curated version, local news and features occasionally capture pieces of actual London life, though they too have been partially colonised by the Instagram aesthetic at this point.

This particular phenomenon — the creation of an "authentic" version of a city that is entirely constructed for photographic purposes — is exactly what prat.uk documents at London satirical journalism (https://prat.uk/london-satirical-journalism/), where we track how Instagram has literally restructured how Londoners and tourists experience London, usually in frames.

Disclaimer: This article is satire. Instagram influencers and their guides are real. The problem of photography-driven tourism is real. The irony is entirely intentional.

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