Artists, photographers, musicians, restaurants and businesses from throughout the state are finding each other online, thanks to a social media account curated by Baton Rouge painter Chad Schoonmaker.
In a new Q&A feature, 225 speaks with Schoonmaker about how he curates the account to capture Louisiana’s colorful spirit on Instagram.
His account, @ThatLACommunity, features some of the best photos from those who attached the hashtag to their images. Louisiana Instagram users have shared photos with the hashtag more than 100,000 times.
“The account was originally started by Justin Posey and Andy Roberts in early 2014, but when they got too busy to handle it, they entrusted Schoonmaker to take over,” 225 writes. “Today, he selects local curators to take charge for two weeks at a time, picking photos to repost and writing captions.”
Photos posted to the account capture the state’s unique personality, vibrancy and emotions. “Scrolling through the page, you’ll see there’s a lot of pretty stuff here. And if you have a good photo, we’ll share the heck out of it,” Schoonmaker says, adding that he finds people who use the hashtag as well as comment and like photos on the account.
“You have to have a good eye—I look for people who kind of just get it. We try to have a diverse mix of men and women, different ethnicities and people from different parts of the state posting.”
Schoonmaker has used the account to draw attention to the raw feelings expressed in Louisiana communities after tragic events such as the movie theater shooting in Lafayette and Baton Rouge’s summer shootings.
“With the Alton Sterling stuff, the question was: Do we address this? We have to address it. So we made this post basically saying this is a really awful thing that happened, but here are some of the things we can do to get better,” he says.
