Pic a fight
Photog’s folks battle Instagram
THE FAMILY of a daredevil photographer killed last year wants to honor his legacy online — but they got an Insta-no from Instagram, where the photographer’s work is posted, relatives said Tuesday.
Now Christopher Serrano’s parents are fighting the social media photo-sharing site, trying to get the rights to use the deceased 25-yearold shutterbug’s account.
“Instagram meant a lot to Christopher and I think if our family wants to continue working on his page, we should be allowed to do so,” said Serrano’s father, Herman Serrano. “We’re really determined to get this done.
“We want to continue the page for him,” he said.
Instagram memorialized Serrano’s page “heavy_minds” in January — a few months after he died — preventing anyone from updating or posting anything to its feed.
Serrano fell to his death in Brooklyn on Oct. 4, 2016, as he tried to take a picture of the Manhattan skyline from atop a moving Coney Island-bound F train rolling past the Fourth Ave./Ninth St. station in Park Slope.
When Serrano died, he had 118,000 people following his page, which was filled of daring pictures.
The snap-happy lensman often took photos while seated on the ledges of massive buildings — his legs dangling into the picture’s frame.
“It’s lonely up here,” he commented on an Instagram photo of himself on a precarious perch above Times Square. He posted that image two days before his death.
For a few weeks after Serrano died, his brother continued to post his sibling’s pictures and write vignettes about how he had taken the photos.
Relatives were also reposting some photos Serrano had pulled down as he prepared to join the NYPD Police Academy. He was concerned he would be connected to the heavy_minds page and be accused of trespassing on private property.
“We would like to put those pictures back up because they were his favorite,” Herman Serrano said.
Serrano’s family had the password to the heavy_minds site — and were surprised that, suddenly, they were unable to get in and alter the page at all.
Instagram told relatives that when it memorialized the page upon learning of Serrano’s death to prevent hackers from logging on.
Herman Serrano said he would like to use the Instagram page to alert his son’s many fans of art shows they plan to hold in Christopher’s honor.
The dad said they also found more than 5,000 photos on Serrano’s computer — what can be found on Instagram is just a sampling.
“His fans are still following him on Instagram,” Herman Serrano said. “They are still commenting on his pictures.”
Last month, Green-Wood Cemetery — where Serrano’s camerashaped urn, a replica of his Cannon 6D, is entombed — honored Serrano by putting one of his photos in its columbarium.
Herman Serrano said his family plans to hire an attorney to fight Instagram’s policy in court.
A spokeswoman for Instagram said the company is looking into the family’s request.