Instagram Watch: Jennilee Marigomen

I can’t recall how I came to follow Jennilee Marigomen on Instagram (the same goes for most of the people I follow who I don’t know personally), but she quickly became one of my favorite pro photographers to show up in my daily feed. Marigomen is a Vancouver-based photographer and photo editor for 01 Magazine based in Vancouver. Her cellphone photography is a great example of how Instagram, in the hands of someone who photographs for a living, can turn into a serious avenue for expression while still retaining the personal window into every day life that is the medium’s hallmark.

“It is more about sharing my day and activities with my peers,” Marigomen told me via email. “I tend to keep more of a distance with my work using my film cameras.” Her print work, done primarily on film, includes commissions for print magazines like Spin and Nylon, as well as three booklets published in small runs by the likes of Japan’s Twelve Books and France’s Je Suis une Bande de Jeunes. Whether it’s on film or Instagram, her work shares the same fascination with the power of pure light, and its ability to transform everyday scenes into something special. It’s the most obvious clue that you’re following a pro photographer on Instagram: when light becomes a primary subject, it doesn’t matter if the camera is a 1980s film SLR, a large-format view camera, or an iPhone. The fundamental fact that photography is a medium to capture light, and all of the interesting and beautiful things it’s capable of doing, transcends any medium.

Follow along on Instagram (@jennileem), and see more of Marigomen’s personal and editorial work on her website here.