Andrew Harlow’s Tumblr site is characterized by a stark white background offset by a stream of artistic images framed in a vertical column — elegant black and white photography, fashion forward designs, colorful sculptures.
At least that’s what appears today. Tomorrow will be different, as 18-year-old Harlow’s taste is ever-changing, and so is the interest of his nearly 80,000 online followers.
The art history freshman has become an Internet sensation, attracting a solid Tumblr fan base as well as the attention of the site’s administration, which recently asked him to become a Community Editor for the popular “art” tag.
Tumblr is a 5-year-old blogging website that enables its roughly 46 million users to “effortlessly stream anything they want to,” according to the site’s home page. It can be completely customized and allows the posting of everything from quotes and links to photos and music. The site boasts the slogan: “The easiest way to blog.”
But Harlow will humbly tell you Tumblr is more than a social media site or his part-time job — it’s a forum to express himself, a match-maker and a gateway for future endeavors.
LOGGING IN
It started when Harlow was a junior in high school at Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts in Natchitoches. He created the page, at the suggestion of a friend, to display photographs he was taking in an entry-level film photography course. He never intended for the personal log to go viral, he said.
“About four or five months went by, and I didn’t really use it much. I uploaded some of my own photographs, like one every two weeks,” he said. “But then I started putting other photos, and it began to be a way for me to showcase other artists.”
The following summer he began receiving recognition from large websites, an influx of people subscribed to his account, and soon, his personal blog became a favorite page on toolbars around the world.
“I try to pinpoint when it got as big as it did,” he said. “I don’t even know. It kind of blows my mind sometimes.”
Harlow pauses, explaining he gets surprised when students around campus recognize him or he attracts a new follower. The shaggy-haired, thin fraternity pledge remains modest, frequently saying “I mean, it’s not that big of a deal … but it’s pretty cool.”
With so many followers to please, Harlow began to change the way he ran the operation. He said he started to consciously think about not only what he liked, but whether the viewer would enjoy it. Soon the photography posts evolved into fashion highlights, and Harlow began to spotlight a variety of artists and their respective genres.
“It became not just an image bank,” he said. “It has a personal touch with different collections, artists.”
Harlow said he began interviewing these subjects and posting reviews and Q&A excerpts along with the images. The blog is now centered on this fusion of reporting and imagery rather than personal collections. With approximately 7,000 posts under his belt in two years, he laughed as he said only about fewer than one percent of the displayed art is his own.
“I like to promote artists who deserve to be out there,” he said. “There’s more to art than what you see in galleries — there’s another culture online.”
Harlow excitedly described his recent interviews, saying the people he once idolized he now considers friends. One of his most memorable interviews, Harlow said, was with oil painter Andrew Salgado.
“It sticks out in my mind because that was one post that went, for lack of a better word, ‘viral,’” Harlow said. “It was the post that went everywhere and was all over art blogs.”
An upcoming interview, Harlow noted, will be with photographer Billy Kidd, who has also established an online following with his photography blog “i was shot by billy kidd.”
But Harlow hasn’t just secured connections with big-name artists, he said. He’s also scored his first love and his first online job.
STABLE CONNECTION
Harlow met his girlfriend, Aoife Leonard, through Tumblr. He said he began exploring more fashion-oriented websites as he became interested in fashion photography and stumbled upon Leonard’s Tumblr page.
“About six months ago, I started looking at designers that I knew of. [Aoife] runs a blog that is specifically about fashion. We started talking and became friends. Last October, I bought a plane ticket and went up and saw her, and now, she lives here.”
Leonard, philosophy and political science freshman, said she never thought she would secure a relationship through Tumblr. She laughed, saying her family still doesn’t understand it.
“I didn’t know who he was at first,” she said. “I just knew he was really popular on Tumblr.”
Leonard said she was attracted to both Harlow’s personality and his interest in art. She remains impressed with the connections he has made and with the amount of time he dedicates to it.
“We spend a lot of time together — sometimes we’ll blog at the same time,” she said. “I’ll show him something he might want for his blog, we’ll share photographs, [and] opinions.”
Leonard said the two collaborate on Tumblr projects frequently.
“She is the single best thing to come out of this Tumblr blog,” Harlow said, as a smile expands across his face. “So, if nothing else, Tumblr did find love for me.”
WELCOME TO TUMBLR
Another perk has been his voluntary job as a Tumblr “art” tag Community Editor, a position he was asked to fill in spring 2011. The Community Art editors, which include a group of about eight bloggers, are responsible for finding and broadcasting art-specific blogs on Tumblr’s home page.
“Tumblr wanted to create a way [it] could expose [its] bloggers better,” he said.
Harlow said he now spends about an hour a day sifting through blogs that have been deemed “art” through the site’s tagging capability. When he finds something he thinks is worthy of promotion, he will help publicly display it.
When asked if he seeks out any specific art forms or styles, he said, “Art encompasses so many different things — I just look for things that appeal to me.”
Harlow said the eight different community editors have different tastes, which add variety to the selection.
“Obviously, there’s some subjectivity that goes into it, and that’s some of the appeal of it,” Harlow said. “People want to know what I like.”
Appearing on the home page helps bloggers receive subscribers and recognition, he said. When his name first appeared on the main site as an editor, he gained roughly 6,000 new followers overnight.
“I just thought, ‘Wow, my name is going to be on the front page,’” Harlow said, noting his initial reaction to the job offer. “It was a big step. Ever since then I’ve had tons of artists and designers asking for collaborations.”
One such collaboration is a Tumblr-linked online store Harlow is hoping to launch this semester. Leonard is also helping with the shop.
“There are a few small designers from California that want to sell their stuff,” he said. “It’s mostly clothing. What I’d like to do, and what I’m in the process of doing, is to expand it and make it a store for prints and reach out to my favorite artists.”
REFRESH PAGE
Harlow said the store is just the beginning of what he plans to do in the future.
Harlow is currently focused on the up-keep of “Recordis,” a bi-annual art magazine he co-created with a fellow blogger eight months ago. Harlow said one issue has been printed so far and the second is set to come out in early April. The 80-page spread is content-only, he says.
“The name, it’s Latin, and it means ‘returning to the heart,’” he says. “And that’s the idea. Ninety percent of the artists featured have never been in a gallery or never been published. It’s average people like you and I with incredible work.”
Harlow said they have even opened the floor to submissions for the magazine from artists of any level. He has received about 200 for the next edition.
In addition to highlighting underground artists, Harlow hopes to dive in and explore the Baton Rouge community and college art scene.
Eventually, however, Harlow would like to move beyond Baton Rouge — literally. He said he would like create a mobile, rotating Tumblr art gallery that would visit a string of cities across the nation, setting up new artist displays at each site.
Until then, Harlow said he is staying put, as he has obligations to his education, his girlfriend, his fraternity and his personal blog.
“In the end, one thing you have to realize is it’s something for yourself,” he said. “You can’t let the numbers get to your head. The real satisfying part is posting something you love and getting recognition for that.”
