Artsy: making a strong, affected, or pretentious display of being artistic or interested in the arts.

In the past, photography was a form of artistic expression that took talent along with expensive technology. With the invention of the iPhone and the app Instagram, some believe this is no longer the case.

Instagram is an Iphone application that allows the user to take pictures and add filters to those pictures in order to up the quality or level of “artsy” the picture has. Does the ability to easily make almost any picture look better undermine the talent it takes to be a photographer? Students here at Carlsbad High School seem to have varying opinions.

“Instagram is pretty much destroying photography. People can take filters and put them over nothing to make them look artsy. Real photography takes talent.  Instagram does not,” junior Jessica Major said.

Major is not alone in her way of thinking. Many believe that Instagram is undermining the ability of real and talented photographers to be recognized.

“I’m really not a fan of Instagram. I used it for only a short time and quickly realized it took little to no talent,” junior Brian DeGour said. “All this app does is make real and talented photographers indistinguishable from those using this application.”

Others disagree, saying that Instagram does take talent.

“It’s like a professional photographer using Photoshop or having a really expensive lens. You still have to have skill to take a good picture. You can just make it better through using the filters,” junior Nick Romero said.

Instagram offers a unique opportunity to photographers regular photography cannot. Users of the application argue that they are not using it for the sake of becoming professional, but to show old things in a new light.

“I’m not trying to ruin the world of photography,” Romero said. “It’s just that Instagram offers the unique opportunity to document my life in an interesting way, and instantly share it with others.”