Why Everyday Life Should Be Newsworthy

News, currently, is the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the advance of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and the corresponding clashes between Kurdish protesters and the Turkish authorities. It is the dozen civilians that have died as nuclear neighbours India and Pakistan exchange cross-border fire in Kashmir, the 60 people killed in twin blasts in Yemen, the seven people beheaded by Boko Haram in a suspected revenge attack. It is the protests in Hong Kong, the shooting of an African-American teenager in St. Louis, the continual smashing of a ceasefire in Ukraine, and whether, this time, Brazil will vote for change.

Each of those stories are accompanied by graphic images; images of children suffering, militants in black masks waving flags, riot police armed with tear gas, militarised armies, and rubble that is a sign of death and displacement.

Yet, life goes on.

These five Instagram feeds were created with the specific intention of focusing on daily life. News, isn’t just the extreme, it is also the everyday.

1. Everyday Africa

The Instagram page “Everyday Africa” describes itself as the result of the work of “photographers living and working in Africa, finding the extreme not nearly as prevalent as the familiar, the everyday.”

2. Everyday Latin America

Similarly, “Everyday Latin America” showcases images by photographers working out of Latin America, focusing not on the extraordinary events that make the news, but on the every day.