F E AT U R E
she’s posted only 200 or so images (‘I only really like 10 of them’) on Instagram feed @streetview.portraits as the Agoraphobic Traveller. At last count, she had over 141,000 followers. In 2017 Kenny featured on the front page of National Geographic’s website ‘despite me not travelling or having a camera!’ The same year Google also featured her work on its home page, and made a threeminute doco about her (1.5 million-plus views on YouTube). The images often depict the outskirts of cities, remote towns,
and arid landscapes (camels in a United Arab Emirates desert, a mobile home in Kyrgyzstan) with the sky and/or foreground often prominent as negative space. ‘Oddly enough, given my agoraphobia, I’m drawn to open spaces. I like vivid architecture, bright light, and pastel colours, which suit Instagram.’ With their stark aesthetic and otherworldly feel, her images convey both isolation and hope. People are peripheral, if there at all – Google’s privacy protocol means recognisable faces are blurred. ‘I do hardly any editing.
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