Before the $1 billion sale to Facebook, before the 575 likes per second, before the 30 million registered users...there was this Instagram photo of a foot and a dog.
The shot was featured in a blog post on Monday by Instagram HQ, celebrating two years to the day of the first photo uploaded to the photo-sharing network's precursor, Codename. Fast forward a couple years, and feet and dogs have become Instagram mainstays along with cats, brunch and bridges.
But Monday wasn't the photo's first appearance on the web. A Nov. 2011 post to Quora asks about the granddaddy of all Instagram shots. A response by community evangelist Jessica Zollman links to the shot, and says it was snapped by Kevin Systrom, Instagram's co-founder and CEO.
Instagram community manager Josh Riedel tells us that the foot belongs to Systrom's girlfriend. As for the dog? Its identity and owner are unknown, but it was found at this Mexican taco stand.
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