Photos of birthday cake truffles, a gooey chocolate marshmallow pizza and a giant fortune cookie sprinkled with powdered sugar are just a few of the posts on Natalie Landsberg’s popular Instagram account new_fork_city, which boasts more than 79,000 followers.

Landsberg, an undeclared freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, created the account with her friends Gillian Presto and Emily Morse in November 2013. Landsberg attended the same high school as Presto and knew Morse from Hebrew school. All three girls lived in New York City.

“We had a ton of opportunities to eat out, and every time we went we’d take photos, so we decided to make it into something,” Landsberg said.

The account’s popularity skyrocketed overnight after its creation and now gains approximately 1,000 followers everyday, Landsberg said. She was shocked that new_fork_city took off so quickly and never imagined the account would have a global audience.

“It was insane,” she said.

Although the girls started off by posting their own photos to new_fork_city for the first three months, their followers now submit the majority of the posts. Users submit photos by tagging them #newforkcity, and Landsberg chooses a few of them to post each day. Users have submitted thousands of photos using the hashtag.

To decide which photos to post, Landsberg said she chooses the foods that get the best reactions from followers. More popular foods include macaroni and cheese, desserts and bagels — meat doesn’t usually get as positive of a response.

Landsberg described new_fork_city as an intersection of her two interests, food and photography. Landsberg said besides food, she loves photographing people; she’s especially interested in New York street photography and fashion photography.

The freshman’s goal for the account is to eventually have over 100,000 followers. She cites having good public relations abilities and frequently posting content as important skills for running a popular blog.

Perseverance and confidence are two other traits she described as important for anyone starting up a new blog.

Said Landberg: “Just stick with it the whole way.”

Published on October 6, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Alex: aerdekia@syr.edu