Tourism is weird. I grew up in a tourist town and I always felt that way. I hated tourism as a youngster and I always wanted them to “just go home.” Then, as I got older and found myself rather dependent on tourism for work, I didn't want them to go home as much. Tourism is a great economic driver but it can also be hugely detrimental to a culture’s way of life depending on how your tourists act in your home town.
I remember as a kid we would go to the beach a lot in the summer. On our way home my dad would ask us to find at least three pieces of trash to throw away before we left because “those damn tourists.” I always knew that I could easily find three cigarette butts or three beer cans and get the task done right away. Or when I took my first trip to Hawaii, walking along these beautiful beaches and finding an infinite amount of Starbucks cups and plastic straw wrappers floating perilously along the waterline. Or being at the top of Mount Fløyen in Norway and yelling at fellow Americans for stopping to carve their names into a tree… My relationship with tourism is truly a love/hate one.
I love meeting people from other places and seeing that look in their eyes when they gaze onto something beautiful and unique to your home for the first time… It actually brings you a new way of seeing your town. It reminds you of your town’s unique qualities and how lucky you are to live there. I, personally, am dependent on tourism for my income; the more people that come to you for photos the better right?
Then I turn the corner and run into a group of tourists stopping for a snack and watch them walk away from their trash like it’s not their responsibility to clean it up. Or am woken up at 6 am by a family dragging their wheeled suitcases across the bumpy cobblestones, shouting directions at each other because they can’t hear over the “clunk clunk clunk” of their suitcase wheels or be bothered to stop and consult the map quietly... Watching a couple in love take a brass lock with their names on it, locking it onto a bridge that’s over 100 years old and throwing the keys into the canal in the name of their love… Even Leslie and Ben did it on Parks and Rec!
Tourism is an industry that has saved many a place financially while simultaneously ruining it at the same time. Just a few years ago an entire chunk of the Pont Des Arts bridge came off under the weight of those love locks… what happened to just picking a bridge along the Seine, making out on it, and promising to return? What happened to choosing just to visit a place because you wanted to see it, not solely because you want a selfie at it? When did our travel go from learning about ourselves to showing the world what we can afford to do? You will never get rich or famous from those selfies, I promise you that.
A lot of us think that our worth is determined by online presence these days. But I argue that the world doesn’t care about your photos nearly as much as you do. As a professional photographer, I tend to tell other budding professionals that if it seems like everyone is doing something (like workshopping) or taking the same photos with the same filters (hello heavy contrast), you have already made yourself obsolete. The world doesn’t really care about your travel photos, no matter how many Instagram followers you have, so just get out there and live already. You can’t do what I do because we have the same camera, you honestly don't want to do what I do. I walk 10 miles a day for a single $150 paycheck per week from travel photography... Do you still want to be me? Do you really know anyone with a huge online presence that lives the life they publicize?
If a photographer is trying to sell you a course on how they made six figures taking travel or wedding photos, demand to see their financial records before you buy. I mean, why would they want to share those secrets with you knowing very well that such a paycheck is extremely rare and those fields are crazy competitive? Fame is fleeting and self-depreciating, run from it as fast as you can. Or, if it's the only thing you really and truly want to do with your life, learn to work extremely hard for it and be prepared to work like that for a long time. Honestly, it's probably smarter to run towards a nice lunch with a new friend because that is real and is what makes travel (and life) worthwhile.
Tourism has grown exponentially, but I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to watch tourists see the world through their cellphone screens. I, personally, never take photos with my cellphone. I think they're ugly anyway. If I want to take any image, I use my big professional camera on full manual mode so I am forced to truly consider whether or not it’s worth stopping myself or my entire family in a moment to take a photo. It keeps me honest, it keeps my eyes open, it forces me to actually look at something first before I can push my button. If everyone is taking a photo of something, I know that it’s not worth it. Financially, it’s already been done and most of my professional photos are primarily taken for monetary reasons…. As a mother I’ll take a photo of my kid but I don't share those with the world unless her face is not visible. So if I take a personal image, it’s something I can actually savor later. If it's professional it has to be something I can’t already find on a stock site.
I go places for myself. Sometimes I go places for my job. I go places because they bring me a personal peace. I do not go to places because I saw something on Instagram that made me want the same photo. In fact, if a place already has a ton of professional images in backlog, publications don't want to see it anymore anyway… And I am not about to climb my fat butt all the way up to Trolltunga in Norway to have a bunch of Norwegians laugh at me so I can take yet ANOTHER photo of that rock. It’s a beautiful place, it’s breathtaking and absolutely mind blowing, but I’m not going because that landscape is marred with humans standing in a long line to take that photo so why bother? I stood in line to “see” The Mona Lisa… All I got from that was a wonderfully long look at the much more beautiful Da Vinci in the hall on the way that is free from a viewing queue and 8 inches of bulletproof glass.
Tourism is a wonderful way to boost an economy, but at what risk to another’s daily way of life? I challenge the future travelers in the world to put your phones away and just be in the space you paid so much to get to, no one cares about your cellphone photos. They don’t even really care about my fancy camera ones. Just see, be and take only memories with you. Bring a journal and write out how you feel and what you’ve learned by being there, draw a picture of the landscape you’ve worked so hard to get to… just, put the cellphones down already. And don’t forget to take three pieces of trash with you when you leave.
