Beyonce's Maternity Photo, Love it or Hate It, Is Now the Most Likes Photo in Instagram's History

In the age of the “like” as the social currency of the Internet, we have a new record holder. Beyonce's maternity announcement photograph, which was posted to Instagram recently, has now garnered 8.8 million likes and about 417,000 comments.

And well… let's take a look at it.

We would like to share our love and happiness. We have been blessed two times over. We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes. – The Carters
A photo posted by Beyoncé (@beyonce) on Feb 1, 2017 at 10:39am PST

It certainly seems to be dividing opinion on its merits, but we're told that the photographer was a graduate of Cooper Union School of Art in L.A. and trained under David LaChapelle at one point.

A few people are pointing out its amateurish 80s aesthetic, but with a decent resume as the photographer has, is it too much of a stretch to imagine that the look may have been entirely deliberate? It leads into all sorts of arguments that you are probably already familiar with about what defines art.

For what it's worth, Buzzfeed called the photo, “beautiful, and quite frankly iconic.”

What do you think?

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Rob is the founder of Light Stalking. His love for photography started as a child with a Kodak Instamatic and pushed him into building this fantastic place all these years later, and you can get to know him better here.
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6 Comments

The Cooper Union School Of Art is in NYC, not LaLa Land.

I think it sucks. Another example of mediocrity being hailed as something wonderful because hordes of human beings that don’t know art from a hole in the ground give it a like because they happen to recognize that it’s Beyonce.

You said it Kent. Exactly my feelings.
There is a big difference between “liking” Beyoncé and liking Art.
Just look at all those duck faced selfies flooding the Internet.

Good lord! No offense to the lady, but this photograph doesn’t do her any justice.
This could have been so so so much better.
Agree with Kent.
No trace of any ‘art’ in this photograph. What were the folks at BuzzFeed thinking?
Looks like a snapshot from a point & shoot apart from the light being feathered with a softbox or umbrella.
The colors are all over the place.
Hardly any post processing done.
I would be ashamed of I post such a photograph of anybody, let alone of a celebrity.
Then there is the PR manager of the lady in the photograph, that person doesn’t know much about photographs either, the way they allowed this to be posted.
Jp

SMH….all that really matters is that SHE loves it. Seriously. It is not something I like or would (normally) photograph but it’s hers, not mine.

It is a very unappealing photograph. It is distracting without a true focal point. What she is wearing in not flattering. I would not like this image regardless of the woman in the photo!!! I am also a maternal child health nurse and have seen many beautifully done images of pregnant women. I have no problem with Beyonce’s baby announcement but it is not an iconic image in my opinion!