Couple of thoughts: 1. Time would have likely used the hi-res photo saved to Lowy’s phone. At least 1900px. 2. Instagram is a distribution network. It is the wrong tool for making press photographs, it is a useful tool for sharing them. 3. I’d hazard a guess that most of the photographers were also using their standard gear. Andrew Quilty, who’s kindly responded here already, has at last count two non-Instagram photos featured on the Time site. It was just one of a few tools they were using. 4. The re-share stats are a very clear indicator that people viewed, liked that then showed other people the photos. Pretty simple. You may not like them, but the general public did. 5. Nothing is keeping Instagram and Facebook from licensing photos, and they will, and it will further disrupt photojournalism. The editors can see it coming so they are sidling up rather than ignoring it. 6. Oh and I agree with you that the Instagram photos from the Time commission were not the best. But that’s an issue of current aesthetic trends. In the next year or two most cameras will be directly connected to Instagram through 3/4G and WIFI. Then we will really see the true impact of the app. The filters are just growing pains. So what’s the alternative Kenneth? How do you compete with real-time, all angle, free photo coverage as provided by Instagram and its 100m and counting users?

Here we go again. A few thoughts, maybe photography isn't that special? Maybe people are more interested in what's happening in real-time rather than waiting for what's nice and photogenic afterwards. I've seen plenty of dramatic storm photos. But for the first time, because of Instagram, I was able to track the storm live through the hundreds of thousands of users going through the event. Oh and I agree with you that many of the Time photos were poorly executed. But that's just five photographers struggling against the tide. Also, it's not about the filters, they will fall away, leaving an integrated global photo distribution network. For those interested, I've been trying to make sense of the role that citizen Instagram images play in the real-time representation of a news event. I even wrote an article about how and why I curated a live feed of Instagram photos tracking the Hurricane. Here's the article.