How can I get a user’s media from Instagram without authenticating as a user?

var name = "smena8m";
$.get("https://images"+~~(Math.random()*3333)+"-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?container=none&url=https://www.instagram.com/" + name + "https://stackoverflow.com/", function(html) {
if (html) {
    var regex = /_sharedData = ({.*);<\/script>/m,
        json = JSON.parse(regex.exec(html)[1]),
        edges = json.entry_data.ProfilePage[0].graphql.user.edge_owner_to_timeline_media.edges;

      $.each(edges, function(n, edge) {
          var node = edge.node;
          $('body').append(
              $('<a/>', {
              href: 'https://instagr.am/p/'+node.shortcode,
              target: '_blank'
          }).css({
              backgroundImage: 'url(' + node.thumbnail_src + ')'
          }));
      });
    }
});

html, body {
  font-size: 0;
  line-height: 0;
}

a {
  display: inline-block;
  width: 25%;
  height: 0;
  padding-bottom: 25%;
  background: #eee 50% 50% no-repeat;
  background-size: cover;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

You can download any Instagram user photo feed in JSON format using ?__a=1 next to landing page address like this. No need to get user id or register an app, no tokens, no oAuth.

min_id and max_id variables can be used for pagination, here is example

YQL may not work here inside snipped iframe, so you can always check it manually in YQL Console

APRIL 2018 UPDATE: After latest instagram updates you can’t do this on client side (javascript) because custom headers for signed request can’t be set with javascript due to CORS Access-Control-Allow-Headers restrictions. It still possible to do this via php or any other server side method with proper signature based on rhx_gis, csrf_token and request parameters. You can read more about it here.

JANUARY 2019 UPDATE: YQL retired, so, check my latest update with Google Image Proxy as CORS proxy for Instagram page! Then only negative moment – pagination not available with this method.

PHP solution:

    $html = file_get_contents('https://instagram.com/apple/');
    preg_match('/_sharedData = ({.*);<\/script>/', $html, $matches);
    $profile_data = json_decode($matches[1])->entry_data->ProfilePage[0]->graphql->user;