powerful on Instagram. Fred Stauffer
“I’m type of like a Swiss army knife,” Fred Stauffer told me in early February.
The 30-year-old Brazilian native, who boasts a lot more than 71,000 followers on his Instagram, is a self-described content material creator and inventive director who has leaned tough into the possibilities social media platforms like Instagram have to offer you in terms of creation, specifically quick-type rapid burst videos like the company’s Reels function. He moved from South America to Europe some fifteen years ago, initially aspiring to develop into an engineer. His dream would modify when he and his household reached England, when he began studying media production at the age of 20. His aspirations would shift more than time, from cinematographer to Steadicam operator to graphic designer ahead of ultimately settling at an influencer agency. It was in the course of that period when quick-type content material on the online began to acquire foothold, and he noticed “huge demand” for this new kind of delivery. Additional importantly, it clicked for Stauffer he could really do some thing meaningful with anything he loved when it comes to capturing and processing imagery.
Rapid forward to currently, and Stauffer is proud of the truth he functions with so quite a few brands who “trust” him in assisting capture their identity ahead of sharing with the globe. The Paris-primarily based Stauffer has worked with luminaries such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and a lot more. (Prada is a favored of his.) He’s incredibly significantly in demand, to place it succinctly. “It’s tough to clarify my crazy suggestions,” he stated of his explaining his inventive procedure with other people. “The camera’s gonna go via your art, and we’re going to see somebody else right after. Then you are like, ‘What does that imply?’ then when I really show it, when I film it, it tends to make way a lot more sense. It gets quick to validate and to make all of these ideas. That is what I’ve been carrying out now for for the previous year. I’ve been contacted by a lot of distinctive brands and distinctive [production] homes that have been wanting to make this content material [with me].”
When he is not functioning, Stauffer insisted he has a typical life. He’s a music lover, at the moment studying how to play the saxophone for the reason that it gets his thoughts off of operate and for the reason that, frankly, it was some thing he “always wanted to do,” he stated. Aside from playing the sax, Stauffer enjoys surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding.
As with profiles of influencers Laura Whaley, Damon Domonique, and Becca Moore that have appeared in this space more than time, Stauffer’s story does not have an apparent connection to accessibility or assistive technologies. Exactly where the dots connect lie in how disabled people today use the online also we use platforms like Instagram and incredibly effectively may possibly adhere to Stauffer—and/or any of the other people I mentioned—and be inspired by what he and the other people do. In a broad scope, the primary concept right here is that nevertheless critical accessibility and assistive technologies are, disabled people today are just that: they’re people today above all else. They have interests and hobbies, likes and dislikes—all of which have apparent applicability to what they decide on to interact with on the online. Which, it should really go with no saying, may possibly consist of Stauffer.
It is also correct that Stauffer’s reliance upon technologies to do issues completely illustrates the idea that accessibility is not a domain solely for the disabled. Stauffer may possibly obtain technologies practical, absolutely helpful, but it is quick to conflate comfort with accessibility. He may possibly not have a disability, but make no error, he couldn’t do what he does with no technologies. That is accessibility correct there.
As described, Stauffer described a large portion of Instagram’s (and all social media) allure is the truth it taught him “a new way making a business” working with the supercomputer of a phone he carries in his pocket. He cited the old way of carrying out a photo exhibition as but 1 instance of this. Prior to the advent of social media, his attain, each in terms of audience and in terms of what he could logistically achieve, would have been constrained. Stauffer is only human, right after all, and he only has a finite quantity of sources to expend. With Instagram, nevertheless, his addressable audience is nigh infinite, specifically so with the immediacy of the medium. And with the camera technologies on his telephone, he’s in a position to edit and show images in approaches that have been heretofore not possible. In this context, what technologies has enabled Stauffer is accessibility in its purest type technologies is very actually assisting him in carrying out his life’s operate and sharing it with untold numbers of people today worldwide. In a nod to technological progress getting a immutable force, Stauffer told me the possibilities offered currently compared to these from 5 years ago—which may possibly as effectively centuries ago in tech time—have permitted him to do issues and have new experiences that couldn’t exist just a handful of quick years ago. “Using my telephone, and all of this [other tech], distinctive digital apps [helps] make some thing and have a larger influence,” Stauffer stated.
Stauffer relies on his telephone to manage his cameras’ settings, which he explained he’s “very picky” more than. This is one more instance of how far technologies has come in particular with editing computer software, you conventionally need to have an external show and a specialist laptop like a MacBook Pro to do a lot of the issues Stauffer can do primarily 1-handed on his telephone. Technologies moves at a fast price, certainly.
Asked about the future, Stauffer answered by telling me the quick-term view is rife with competitors in the creator space. The competitors is not cutthroat, as he believes “there’s area for everybody” to obtain their niche for the reason that it is naturally not possible for a single particular person to meet everyone’s demands. In truth, Stauffer is not afraid of other people ostensibly creeping onto his turf, telling me he has “my personal distinctive way and my personal quantity of power and adore I place into my work… that it is gonna be often distinctive to myself,” he stated. He’s even noticed some of his contemporaries use his operate in their personal PowerPoint presentations and the like. Longer term, Stauffer is at the moment seeking into acquiring a studio space for himself and his operate with the intention of “having a tiny bit a lot more freedom when I make my issues.” He’s also attempting to operate a lot more interpersonally, as he admittedly he “doesn’t like to get help” from other people today this, he stated, is an critical step as he continues to develop and expand his business enterprise. Technologically speaking, he appears forward to all the capabilities the inevitable advancements will give his operate. He hopes to have robotic cameras and the like 1 day in his aforementioned studio space, assisting him make his operate less difficult and a lot more effective to total.
“There’s also going to be distinctive issues that are going to be in a position to make my operate superior or less difficult,” Stauffer stated of technology’s breakneck pace of modify.
But as significantly as Stauffer desires to maintain up, he also desires to reside in the moment.
“The evolution is often happening—not only in technologies, but in what we can we can do with this technologies,” he stated. “I really feel like the future’s just gotta be superior, for the reason that I think in the evolution not only in [technological] evolution, but in human evolution. So, I’m excited for anything that is taking place… even even though I’m actually enjoying now [in the present]. I’m attempting to reside as significantly as I can correct now, but I want the future. That is how I see it.”
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Steven is a freelance tech journalist covering accessibility and assistive technologies, and is primarily based in San Francisco. His operate has appeared in such areas as The Verge, TechCrunch, and Macworld. He’s also appeared on podcasts, NPR, and tv.
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