Hong Kong for Instagramers: app that tells you where to take the best shots launches

Explorest, an app-based database of beautiful photo locations curated by local photographers, has come to Hong Kong. The app is designed to help people discover and photograph the world’s most Instagrammable sights, and with its Hong Kong launch has revealed 80 “location insights” across the city.

“Hong Kong is a really enchanting city,” says Justin Myers, co-founder and CEO of Explorest. “We’ve worked with 15 Hong Kong-based photographers – we look for people who consistently shoot images that have character, high-quality colours and sharpness, and who we know are true local experts from their body of work.”

Myers is the business half of the venture; his fellow co-founder, Michael Lax, is a San Francisco-based photographer. The platform was born of their mutual frustration at coming across great images on Instagram and not knowing where they were taken. They launched Explorest in Singapore in July 2017 and added Californian locations in April this year. After Hong Kong, they plan to add New York. The long-term plan is to cover the world.

The Hong Kong “insights” include some predictable locations: the view from bar Ozone at the Ritz-Carlton, the porthole windows of Jardine House in Central, the IFC towers shot at night. But there are also some less obvious shots, such as the view from under Stonecutters Bridge on Stonecutters Island and the helipad at Tolo Harbour. Myers says a couple of his favourites are the Whitestone Gallery’s lift lobby in Central and the view from Ma Tso Lung of the Hoo Hok Wai wetlands in the New Territories, which was shot by drone.

“One image will be added to each location every week,” Myers says. “What’s most important to us is maintaining the level of quality.”