This year on Instagram we continued to tell stories through finely captured moments from our exceptional photographers. It was evident that our efforts were appreciated by you, our readers, as we crossed the milestone of one million followers. We now stand at 1.5 million.
Instagram added a few interesting features this year, mostly designed for bloggers and influencers. While we stayed true to our vision of sharing original works that are impactful, in 2020 we also incorporated a few more ways of storytelling.
We experimented with the idea of explainers, taking a cue from the success of 'The Hindu Explains’ segment on our website and newspaper. One such attempt at deconstructing the amendments brought about in land ownership in Jammu and Kashmir was much appreciated by you.
But a favourite addition of ours this year is the weekly “caption this” collaboration with our followers. As we have said several times in our comments, we admire your quirky takes on images. Do keep them coming!
This year we also shared many videos, essentially stories of substance from across the world. Our videos on Kamikatsu, the zero-waste town in Japan, and the hanging village of Bangladesh threw light on the impact of climate change. We also flirted with the new Instagram feature, reels. Our quick feature on Chandrakala, a unique sweet from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, was much appreciated. But at the end of the day, it is the still images that stand out, especially in a year that has been eventful, to say the least.
Below is a selection of best of the images loved by you in 2020 (in ascending order).
Former President Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away on August 31, was the Planning Commission head in 1991 and Foreign Minister in 1995 under former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.
The Hindu photographer Vijay Bate clicked this image in Juhu Mumbai, where a resident is seen feeding a peacock in an empty street.
U.S. First Lady Melania Trump gets a hug from a girl during her visit to the Sarvodaya School at Moti Bagh in New Delhi.
Caption this! Following an alert about illegal sand mining from the Kosasthalaiyar dry river in Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu, the police seized bullock carts with the sand.
For hours together, Namitha sat on the tiled roof of her two-storey house learning lessons online. She found the rooftop of her house at Areekkal, near Kottakkal, the only place with fairly good signal strength for mobile data.
A child dressed as Arvind Kejriwal at the AAP headquarters in New Delhi.
Actor Irrfan Khan passed away on April 29. K. Murali Kumar captured these images in 2015 at Bengaluru Press Club.
Gandhi Jayanthi 2020. Mahatma Gandhi arriving at the Working Committee Meeting. By AL Venkata Iyer from TH Archive
At the Singhu border between Delhi and Haryana, scores of farmers who have gathered to protest against the newly enacted farm laws, said they had decided to stay put and not move to ensure their movement does not die down.
Instant hit! Temple City, a restaurant chain in Madurai, has extended its love for parotta into the realm of creating awareness about COVID-19, by making parottas in the shape of masks.
