People turn to social media for connection and self-expression. The constant “feeds” on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram offer true-to-life, in-the-moment images of daily life, friends, and family.

Photographer Frank Relle sees this steady stream of creation as an intimate perspective into aspects of cultural life in Louisiana, including food, landscape, music, sports, festivals, family, and carnival. In 2014, Relle worked with fellow photographer Cate Sampson to curate the Culture Share exhibition in Moscow, Russia as a means of cultural exchange through photography. Using the popular social media platform Instagram, they called out to photographers and non-photographers alike to use #LAculture as a way of identifying work that was uniquely Louisiana.

We collected our favorite images, seen here in print rather than the familiar lens of a phone. With Instagram, anyone can take part in the contemporary conversations around art and photojournalism. Relying on a smartphone rather than the latest DSLR camera, regular people are producing thought provoking, insightful work worthy of taking note. The authentic, unpaid sources of social media, and the omnipresent, searchable nature of their intimate images, reach beyond the formal views of professional photography to find new perspectives through #LAculture.

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@lpaulbnard, photo by Jean Paul Bernard

@errorprawn, photo by Justin Bacqué

@netskirk24, photo by Kristen Falgout

@nekoalleykat, photo by Katharina Beliveau

@prairiedesfemmes, photo by Ashlee Michot

@arieldearieflowers, photo by Ariel Dearie

@halfnakedeye, photo by Shain King

@carlya2Z, photo by Carly Zimmerman

@duckdownwaterfowl, photo by Jude Barber

@luckeeee, photo by Christopher Frusha