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5-Year-Old Photographer Has More Instagram Followers And A Cooler Life Than Any Of Us
If someone told you that a photographer has over 100,000 Instagram followers, has seen some of America’s greatest natural treasures, and has had their work featured on National Geographic, you probably wouldn’t be very surprised. Photographers, by and large, live pretty awesome lives. But what if I told you that the photographer in question isn’t even old enough to lose his training wheels yet?
At just five-years-old, Hawkeye Huey (yes, that’s his real name and another reason why he’s so much cooler than all of us) has taken the Internet by storm with his amazing photos. Millennials and their pictures, amirite?
Aaron Huey, Hawkeye’s father and a National Geographic photographer, said that this newfound passion all began on a trip down the West Coast with his then four-year-old son.
“At the age of four, I think Hawkeye was open to just about anything. We also shoot bow and arrows, play with Legos, and draw,” Huey said in an interview with Business Insider. “We were just a father and son going on our first big trip away from Mom.”
During the trip from Seattle down to the Salton Sea in southern California, Huey decided to buy his son his first camera: a Fuji Instax instant camera. Huey posted a really, really adorable picture of his son snapping a pic at the Salton Sea on National Geographic’s Instagram page, and the demand for more Hawkeye pictures went through the roof. The magazine suggested that Hawkeye should get his own Instagram page to share his perspective with the world.
Within his first day of starting an Instagram page, Hawkeye got over 10,000 followers. The kindergartener only has 182 posts, but his fan base has grown enormously. As an emerging artist, Hawkeye doesn’t seem to be too particular about his subject matter, with photos ranging from Halloween costumes to mountains to everyday people (note: this might not be a conscious decision, he is only 5). But what does his photographer father think is one of the most special features of his son’s photos?
“One of the most obvious things about them is that they are from 3 feet off the ground. It’s an angle no one ever sees,” Huey said.
With 1,000 original photos already under his belt, Aaron Huey thought Hawkeye had enough to put out his first book of photography. They launched a Kickstarter to fund the project, and the Huey duo easily exceeded their goal of $35,000 by raising a whopping $47,189. Hawkeye’s book Cowboys/Indians/Hobos/Gamblers/Patriots/Tourists & Sunsets is set to be released in early February 2016.
With all of this success already under his belt, Huey knows that it’s important to limit his son’s exposure (pun intended) to the newfound fame:
“We really want to limit his awareness of this ‘fame’ because he’s really just a regular kindergartner. We want him to be able to focus on school and not really ever have an awareness of what it means to have over 100,000 ‘followers.’ Thus far we have been successful. It’s still just something we do together for fun.”
You can check out more of Hawkeye’s photos here.