FERRA NOVA-A Platform For Everyone!
With the page reaching heights not imagined before, it is time to reflect on the journey from the very beginning
Don’t pick up a dictionary as you won’t be able to find the meaning of the word “Ferra Nova”. Truth is, this word doesn’t exist and is something that Usama came up with for the group of friends who forged bonds of friendship after entering LUMS.
Scrolling through Instagram stories as well as Snapchat stories, the photography skills of some peers and friends were truly mind-blowing, some of them so beautiful that the mind would keep on drooling about them for hours to come. After getting fairly comfortable with the lads at Ferra Nova, I got the opportunity to take a look at some of the pictures taken by Usama, Monum, and Moiz, who insisted that their photographs are good but not good enough to be appreciated by the general masses.
This mere thought, coming from my friends, kept pinching me as I believed amateur photographers needed recognition for what they are doing and in times where everyone is more than willing to jump in with criticism, you need someone to pat you on the back for who you are and what you have done. You can praise someone on dozens of occasions and not get positive feedback, but try mentioning something that may be criticizing someone and you will be humbled with the most brutal counter-attack you may have never imagined.
One day, out of the blue, an idea struck me that we need to have an Instagram page where amateur photographers can freely express themselves, showcasing their photography skills along with their personalized captions to showcase their identity, perspective, tales as well as emotions depicted in a simple colorized picture, inhabited by the precious pixels creating magic. Personally, my idea seemed like an instant hit in my head but upon discussing it with my friends, the response wasn’t that motivating. They acted as the devil’s advocate, pointing out hundreds of flaws which all ended with “Social Media validation is not necessary for life”. Their ideas and criticism were spot-on but rather than shunning the thought, the ideal solution was to look for ways to negate the flaws being pointed out.
Therefore, finally on 24th December 2019, after the approval of the Ferra Nova, the Instagram page called FERRA NOVA came into existence backed by the 15 members of Ferra Nova and a couple of friends from my school with a moto “Ferra Nova is a platform for amateur photographers to showcase their photography skills”.
So, how was it?
Initially, it was horrible! We had no content, no followers, no idea how to promote it as well as the fact that there were some administrative issues. But what are friends for? They help you in times of need and show you that there’s a glimmer of hope even in the most catastrophic circumstances. Anas and Monum had to constantly bear my persistence as I would convince them to take pictures wherever they went even if it was Abrar’s concert at LUMS or a regular dinner at Zakir Tikka. The two lads would capture the moment, spends hours editing them, and only send if they were satisfied with the content they have created. From school, Mahrukh was generous enough to send a whole collection of almost 24 pictures, with her permission to post them whenever I needed them. By the time we had our 20th post, we were following 22 people and were followed back by 22 people.
A time arrived when I thought that it’s a failure and it’s better to shut it before investing in a project destined for failure.
Then, out of nowhere, Shahzaib Ansar arrived like a guardian angel who recommended adding hashtags for increasing the reach of the posts while posting stories of the page to attract followers. That simple trick brought steady success as every LUMS campus picture attracted people who not only started following us but also expressed their generosity with additional likes for every post.
It was a long journey and the maximum we had hoped was for having 100 posts with an audacious target of 500 followers, but this, today, feels like a fantasy.
Captions
We encourage everyone to send their original captions as asking someone else to describe the canvas you painted doesn’t seem a good idea, right? While we do help out people who struggle with captions, the fact remains that there are people who stand out and become the center of everyone’s attention with their unique captions-a true reflection of who they are. Adnan Abbas, for instance, writes such mind-boggling long captions that you may not read them initially but once you start going through the content he wrote, you will admire the young lad from Karachi whose caption instills a desire to provoke your brain cells to begin pondering over his thought. If you’re in love with Urdu literature, the photos sent by Sara are truly mesmerizing with their captions (drawn from literature) acting as the perfect complimenting tool to grasp the interest of the viewers. Usually, her captions attract people to showcase their love for literature in the comments section, which becomes a joy for someone like me who loves literature but isn’t blessed with a significant grip on it.
Turning point
Although we were progressing, even if our pace wasn’t the ideal one, there was one particular post after which we announced our arrival to the Instagram World. Imagine you’re a senior and you’re looking for a place to post your heartfelt goodbye to the place you considered as your ‘home’ for 4 consecutive years. FERRA NOVA steps up, willing to post your long essay alongside the most beautiful picture you captured of the campus. That particular post, contributed by my former EO-SAAD RASHID, changed our fate as now, people apart from our friends began sliding into our DM with contributions for our page (really grateful for that post).
Some backlash
While the page portraits what’s good and merry in modern times, there are some issues associated with managing the page. Firstly, facing your friends! You usually have planned your content for days to come and suddenly receive a picture from a friend who is persisting that you post it on the same day. Despite your best efforts to calm them down and try reasoning, your reasoning sparks an unprovoked rant where you are blamed for being petty, insensitive as well as arrogant. Then you have 2 options to consider. 1) Poison your friendship for a picture you would hardly remember after a week. 2) Sacrifice your rule and accept their request.
Secondly, since the page doesn’t have a known handler, people somehow believe it’s a girl acting as the admin and consequently, the DM is full of creepy men sending pickup lines or trying their best to strike a conversation. Thirdly, since it is an amateur photography page, we find it hard to convince people that sending pictures where people are the main focus isn’t what we want.
Unexpected Contributors
When the page was first created, there were some assumptions about people and we had a general idea of who would send content. The quality of pictures sent by Jahanzaib, Amna Noor, Saad Rashid, Saad Aleem, Ibrahim Bukhari, Zubair, Maham, Sheikh Hassan, Ashir, Aamna Asghar etc was truly out of this world and it only proved our motto to be accurate as we never knew they were such wonderful photographers. We always believed that people are fantastic at taking pictures and are restrained by the opportunities to showcase themselves. Even my juniors from my former school turned out to be fabulous photographers as they beautifully captured nature’s simplicity and elegance.
Social Message
Like any responsible institute, we believe that we have to act as good citizens, spreading awareness, shedding light on the current mishappenings of society. Therefore, we used our platform on numerous occasions to express solidarity with those suffering from any mishappenings, telling them they are not alone. Shehla Amir’s post on Sexual Harassment was by far the most accurate one, a post that even touched my heart.
Likes
While having a decent number of followers is an achievement, followers without having likes is similar to having a hole in a pot of water. Even though some of our followers do not believe they are good with the camera, their actions contribute to our fair share of success as they are habitual to like almost every single one of our posts. Safa doesn’t use Instagram but once in a while you will open the page and get notified that you got 10–20 more likes. Upon further investigation you will realize that it was Safa who literally liked every single post that she missed out on. Haleema is humble enough to award us extra likes by liking the posts from not only her original account, but also her art account. Such people deserve at least a cookie for their kind acts.
While many would claim that there are only one handler and manager of this account, the reality is that this page is “OUR PAGE”, not mine, not of FERRA NOVA FAM. It exists as a result of the contributions of the followers and would cease to exist if people weren’t generous enough to support our cause. All we did was provide you a platform, YOU DID THE REST! HOPING TO REACH 1000 FOLLOWERS SOON!
The only regret is that those who interact with me on the page, telling their stories and ideas, would never know who they were talking to………
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