By JAYDEE LOK

alltherage@thestar.com.my

WHILE most of Instagram’s 150 million active users currently use the photo sharing application to flaunt their faces, their #ootd (that’s “outfit of the day”), lunch plans, pets and everything else for the sake of documenting their daily lives, others have found a way to use their photography skills for a good cause.

Seven “Instagrammers” – Sean Jesudasan, Trisha Toh, Koyuki Inagaki, Yin Tan, Joey Mah, Mai Fernandez and Lydia Tan – with tens of thousands followers each, have joined forces to use Instagram to raise funds for

The mobile photographers who had their work showcased at the #ChasingSquares exhibit at d6, Sentul East, Kuala Lumpur.
From left: Sean Jesudasan, Trisha Toh, Koyuki Inagaki, Yin Tan, Joey Mah, Mai Fernandez and Lydia Tan.

underprivileged Malaysian youths.

Their Instagram photographs, printed and framed – in square frames, how apt – are currently on display and sale at the month-long #ChasingSquares exhibition in Sentul East, Kuala Lumpur.

All the proceeds from the sale is channelled to the StART Society to help under-privileged youths discover and nurture their love for arts.

“We invested so much of our time and money into this exhibition because our intention was purely to raise the bar in mobile photography in Malaysia,” said Japanese freelance graphic designer Inagaki (@koyoox), 24.

She has over 22,150 followers on Instagram, and Inagaki believes that more people should be exposed to the photo sharing site.

“We want people to get to know the artistic side of Instagram, and that’s why we didn’t want to keep the profits (from the print sale) to ourselves,” said Inagaki with hopes that the money would help StART Society help other artistic youths.

Currently residing in Petaling Jaya, the Japanese designer originally started using Instagram to gain work contacts but after using it for just over a year, Inagaki now sees how the application can benefit other things besides her career.

The exhibition, in a way, supports StART Society’s philosophy – that you can always create art within your means.

“Gadgets should not limit your creativity,” said Toh (@trishates), 21.

“That is what we try to express via the exhibition.”

The college student and part-time barista uses Instagram as an outlet to showcase her art – despite many people believing that mobile photography does not amount to “real” photography with bulky DSLR cameras that is.

“I hope young children and aspiring artists can see that all of us can do wonders with the resources we have and that they will be inspired to challenge society’s notion that art is useless,” said Toh.

Sharing her sentiment is TV writer Sean (@seanjesudasan), 29, who believes that the instantaneous form of snapping and sharing photographs has its benefits.

“Nowadays, anyone can be a photographer – and that’s not a bad thing,” he said.

“There isn’t a rule when it comes to what is and isn’t art.

“As long as you’ve got a good eye for capturing things, your art should be acceptable.”

And if that said art benefits others, then it is more the reason to get into it then.