What a year.
Looking back at 2015, it was all about the people. What PoP Founder Saunak Shah started in February as a personal Instagram account, has become so much more. For one thing, Saunak no longer operates solo, but now collaborates with a team of 15 super diverse creatives who each bring something completely different to the table. Our PoP Instagram community now has over 43 thousand members. Our #pursuitofportraits hashtag has been used over 40 thousand times. But our favorite part of 2015? Meeting YOU at our four Instameets.
For our first ever meet in May, we partnered with @skinnywashere in New York City, and happily spent the day with 50 photographers shooting portraits on the Highline. When we held our second meet (“For the Pursuit” - #WWIM12POP) in Central Park in partnership with @centralparknyc and @instagramnyc, we literally couldn’t believe that over 300 of you showed up to connect, collaborate and compete to take photos for all our different portrait challenges. Outside of New York, we were thrilled to have our third meet in Lake Eola, Orlando, Florida in partnership with @IGers_Orlando, @Ricoa87 and @erniewlemon. And wrapping up the year, it was truly inspirational to see the first international meet held in Singapore by @calvinavigator with @bearfangs and @zooliejoe_gf.
We know that none of this would have happened without the passion of our tremendously multi-faceted community of portrait-lovers. So thank you for your photos, your comments, your “likes”, your charitable donations to our “PoP x Movember” campaign, your attendance at our meet, and every time you told one of your friends about us – you make this initiative possible.
And so we lift up our glasses to say thank you for an amazing first year, and cheers to an even better 2016!