In an attempt to start a national discussion around one advertising agency’s bid at boosting tourism to India, Limitless has put together a series of images that supposedly tell the truth behind serene looking colourful Instagram images of the country.
It doesn’t work.
Despite being lauded by Buzzfeed, Design Taxi & Laughing Squid among others, at Phogotraphy are left unphased at the author’s attempt of juxtaposition. The ‘truth’ being revealed beyond the boundaries of the square crop Instagram frame is more of a lie than the original and it’s clear the designers do not understand photography.
Desaturation of an image does not automatically give the scene a poverty stricken look, make it worthy of a broken prefix or anything else. We know from countless documentaries, reportage, photographers and tourists that India is a colourful country and vivid in real life, so to suggest otherwise you’ll need to do better. As one comment on Facebook says “What’s broken about this, it’s just old?”
With the exception of a couple of the images, one depicting child labour and another showing trash shrewn shoreline by an industrial coast, the pictures are lacklustre at best. We’ve shared them below for you to make your own mind up.
Images courtesy of Limitless.
Phogotraphy 