This Instagram Account Shows How So Many Travel Photos Are Almost Exactly the Same

With more than 800 million monthly users on Instagram, it turns out it can be hard to do something original. And an account called @InstaRepeat is making a point of featuring carbon-copy photography.

The creator, who is allegedly a female filmmaker who wishes to remain anonymous, creates collages of Instagram photos from popular accounts that show how everyone gets the exact same shot. They're nearly identical places, in nearly identical poses, with nearly identical framing and light.

Design Boom heralds the account as a showcase of visual trends, and while that's true, it also calls everyone out — especially influencers — for being big old copycats.

Though really, the account isn’t here to shame people for taking like-minded photos, or to even shame influencers themselves. Instead, its purpose appears to be to get us all thinking a little more creatively.

“I think the account is meant to be observational and spark critique and dialogue about originality, art, photography, and the role of the 'social media influencer,” the account’s creator told Buzzfeed.

The creator also said she'd started to see some new trends. “Shots of people standing on top of their cars, people splashing water out of their camp mugs, solitary red houses in the wilderness, and highland cows,” she said. “It's evidently a must to find and photograph one of these cows if you want to be popular on Instagram.”

In the end, Instagram and travel photography should be all about what makes you happy, not your followers. Though, if you really want to become Insta-famous maybe check out @InstaRepeat for inspiration on what works, and read a few key pieces of advice from Influencers here before your next trip. Or, you know, just put down your phone and enjoy your vacation.