Instaprints Turns Your Photo Hobby Into The Real Thing

Aspiring Photographers Will Feel like a Pro

Recently opened online marketplace Instaprints lets users of Instagram advertise their work to a wider audience.

There’s a new online art showcase in town, and it’s aiming to separate the wheat from the chaff in a very inarguable way: by letting users vote with their wallets. On Instaprints.com artists and photographers can hawk their wares for users to purchase as posters, canvas prints, greeting cards and other methods of artistic expression.

The next big thing from Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Sean Broihier (whose previous works in the medium include Fine Arts America and Artist Websites), Instaprints is designed to simplify the innumerable headaches that often accompany the business of art, letting the artists focus on their real passion: making good work and exposing it to the public at large. Through a simple online interface users can import their photos straight from Instagram’s server hosted inside a data center. Users then log in to the site and navigate through the handy menus to set up their own small online store, nestled comfortably within the community of other like-minded souls. Accounts are free, and can be set up in less than a minute.

Not to be outdone by other online artist colonies, Instaprints also boasts a surfeit of social hooks that allow the community to come together and create a shared experience beyond the relationship of mere buyer and seller.  Users of the site on either side of the wallet can follow their favorite artists, participate in rousing discussions, advertise their local events, and even chat in real-time with other members.

But don’t despair of being lost in a sea of mediocrity and duckfaced self-portraits: Broihier assures that the site is specifically coded so that quality photos will stand ahead of the pack. “Hopefully it’ll discourage them from putting up a bunch of photos of themselves drinking a beer or doing a keg-stand,” Broihier explains. “My coding is good enough that if we get a bunch of keg-stand photos, they’ll be pushed down to the bottom.”

So if you’re looking to turn your side project photography into a something a little more legitimate, head over to their website and try your luck.