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"Time awarded the Associated Press\u2019 chief Asia photographer David Guttenfelder as its Instagram photographer of the year, and it\u2019s a wise choice.\nInstagram doesn\u2019t suffer a shortage of talented photojournalists, but Guttenfelder\u2019s feed is unique. His AP post allows him unprecedented access to North Korea, and he regularly updates his Instagram with snapshots of daily life in the hermetic nation that offer the most intimate portrayal of life in the DPRK available, capturing an unvarnished humanity often obscured by the country\u2019s despotic, belligerent political leadership.\nWhat makes Instagram photography great? You might prefer photos from the accounts of people with exclusive access to remote places, regardless of how professionally they compose their shots. Or you might admire an impeccably captured and filtered image for its aesthetic finesse, with content a secondary concern. Taste, of course, is subjective.\nThe best Instagram photography is a happy marriage of content and aesthetic; it uses the photo-sharing app\u2019s tools in the best possible way to share thoughtfully selected snapshots. And nothing more ably utilizes what Instagram is capable of than photographer David Guttenfelder\u2019s captivating feed.\n\n\nGuttenfelder has rare access to North Korea, and he\u2019s one of the only foreign photographers allowed to shoot in Pyongyang, the capital. A lesser photographer in the same situation would certainly gain attention for the exclusive subject matter, but Guttenfelder\u2019s deft eye for moments allows him to pinpoint just the right images to share of the notoriously closed-off country.\n\n\nGuttenfelder belongs to a camp of photographers who embrace Instagram as an opportunity to share images in a unique way, but the merits of Instagram and other social media photography sharing has been the subject of debate among professionals. Facebook recently appointed a photography liaison specifically to ameliorate members of the community who take issue with the current dynamic between Facebook and photographers \u2014 but tension persists, and some photographers are still opposed to Instagram and other photo-sharing tools.\n\u201CI believe it's a deft move by Time to even have such an award,\u201D explains Daniel Berman, founder of the Mobile Photography Awards. \u201CClearly, Guttenfelder knows what the smart pros know: mobile is a different category. We see shots today, because of smartphones, that otherwise simply wouldn't exist.\u201D\n\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\nImage: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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