Video: an example of how so many people take the same tourist photos again and again

"Social media encourages the memeification of human experience. Instead of diversity we see homogeneity. It’s extremely boring."

 

(2:13)

 

I guess nobody gets hurt. But it does show that people do spend too much time taking photos which are as uninteresting as they are similar. I would like to think that Instagram should be reserved for one's better photos.

But it does show that people do spend too much time taking photos which are as uninteresting as they are similar

good lord, you used an adjective other than ‘interesting’ to describe a photo. impressive.

"Social media encourages the memeification of human experience. Instead of diversity we see homogeneity. It’s extremely boring."

Actually, what's boring is just this type of observation, which is now about as cliché as observations come.

 

To begin with, the premise seems wrong to me. People have been taking similar tourist pictures for as long as cameras and tourism have co-existed. It's not something social media invented, though it may be helping make it a somewhat bigger phenomenon.

 

And then, it's probably best to ask who they're uninteresting to and whether "diversity" is a relevant concept here. I've always felt tourist photos (my own included) are about some combination of memorializing and ownership. "I remember" and "I was there." One can put it down as "homogeneity" but then one would be putting down something shared both within and across cultures. Tourist icons are tourist icons for a reason . . . because they have shared appeal often highlighting important moments in shared histories.

 

Let's compare notes a minute. Some people travel a great distance, breathe the fresh air, walk along the river and a great field to experience the majesty of Half Dome. Part of the process is often grabbing a cell phone and taking a picture of it. Other people who call themselves artists take moody pictures of other people or angled pictures of trains and commuters in their downtown areas or pictures of weeds against brightly-colored backgrounds.

 

Which group gets to claim that the other group spends too much time taking uninteresting pictures?

 

I think the "memeist" thing about the days of social media (and I think unlike taking tourist photos people do get hurt here) is how easy and infectious it can make judging what others do.

Edited February 2, 2018 by Norma Desmond

its all been done before... over and over again. we like to think our photos are unique with a different perspective. what may change one from another is the quality. how many variants can you expect when millions of photos of the same thing have been taken every year?

 

for example, your avitar... not very unique. it looks like everyone else's.

Tourist photos, the social media 'obsession' aside, can be explained simply as souvenirs in the original sense of the word. When I look at photos I have taken on long ago trips, many times they are triggers for specific memories, details of an experience which may otherwise be thought of only in general terms. Obviously as a photo enthusiast, I try to get a different rendering or point of view on subjects that are common tourist fodder, but the functional value of the images, to me at least, remains the same, regardless of outcome.

I've never understood why tourist travel half way around the world, from far more interesting places than here, and photograph a potted plant.

“When I look at photos I have taken on long ago trips, many times they are triggers for specific memories,details of an experience which may otherwisebe thought of only in general terms.” That’s it.....I call them shoebox photos, I am processing mine to digital for family, and they are all master memory templates...;) Edited February 2, 2018 by Moving On

They are my photos to do with what I wish. I need nobody's permission, and have the original resolution and quality to work with.They represent my perceptions my memories, and occasionally things I can frame or just display for my friends and relatives. If I have time, I construct at least a mental "story" to illustrate, but just seeing things for the first rime is a rush.

 

Around the end of the 19th century, the director of the US Patent Office declared that his job was superfluous. There was nothing important left to patent. Six years later, the Wright brothers flew an heavier-than-air machine for the first time. Then the director could rest easy ;)

The internet is the validation placebo of the masses....

It is possible to take photos that no one has taken before while on vacation. The wall at Tunnel View in Yosemite is always lined with tripods taking the billionth cliched shot down the valley. Saturated or converted to b&W or with fog, still the same shot from the same place. How many folks put a subject on the wall, light her with off camera light/u mbrella on a stick? Not many. One of my favorite comments on my work, her ex husband was ticked I made her look so good. I took 50 lbs off her with lighting and posing seated sideways on the wall. Not heavy or bulky gear, actually lighter than a tripod, I had humped it all over the valley for 3 hours before shooting. However if tourists are simply trying to capture a reminder of the place, their shots fulfill their purpose of the shot.

However if tourists are simply trying to capture a reminder of the place, their shots fulfill their purpose of the shot.

Right. I think it 's very helpful to understand the difference between what most tourists are after and what a seasoned photographer may be after. While it's certainly possible to take a somewhat unique pic of a tourist site, that's simply not what most tourists care about.

 

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Honestly, it's not what a lot of seasoned photographers seem to care about either. Sunsets, anyone? Now, sure, seasoned photographers will be interested in getting the colors just so and their vibrancy just so, and they'll do it in a way, hopefully, to minimize noise and distracting elements, and the good ones will make very appealing and pleasing sunset photos, worthy of being hung on the wall and oohed and ahhed at. But they're basically taking very similar pictures of sunsets that every other seasoned photographer of sunsets has taken. It's very often less about taking a picture no one has taken before and more about successfully putting together all the elements one already knows make a good picture.

 

Which is why the OP and the author of the video linked and any one of us might actually find ourselves standing among those we look down our noses at.

Edited February 2, 2018 by Norma Desmond

Familiarity breeds contempt......

Nice zinger, Mark. It's good to have a talent like that! :p Edited February 2, 2018 by Norma Desmond

That's an old quote, from Aesop I think.

No talent on my part...

I knew you were quoting. Heard it before. I believe it was originally Chaucer. In any case, don't be so modest, lol. Applying a cliché like that to a situation to get a good gotcha moment does take a certain type of talent.

 

I like what Vladimir Horowitz said, owning his talents:

Without false modesty, I feel that, when I'm on the stage, I'm the king, the boss of the situation.

Edited February 2, 2018 by Norma Desmond

The internet is the validation placebo of the masses....

You could say the same about verbal cliches.

 

Out of curiosity, in what way do you represent the masses, as a member, leader, or paid spokesperson ;) Most people who speak regarding the "masses" consider themselves above the fray.

I'm here......;)

What are you supposed to do on vacation? If you didn't take any photos you were never there.

What are you supposed to do on vacation?

Have great food, see amazing sights, mingle with the residents, lightly overindulge on excellent local beverages, and of course capture lots of photos. Even if both cameras failed, I'd still have "been there"! :)

On vacation or not, there are times when trying to get the perfect shot gets in the way of experiencing what it is you're trying to capture. It's something I try to remember.

 

Decades ago as a kid, I asked for a camera for Christmas. My Mom bought me a Polaroid "One-Step" and my family gave me a bunch of packs of film. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind but I proceeded to take a ton of photos. My mother was dismayed that none of them were of people,- all nature shots or of things I was interested in. Later in life I figured out that as cool as that snowstorm was, there are millions of pictures of snowy landscapes out there, but only so many of my family and friends. So now I try to get pictures of people enjoying the snowy landscape. ;-)

 

Anyway, vacation pictures serve a purpose. They let you enjoy the vacation again years later. You get to remember that trip to the secluded Island in the Caribbean all while forgetting how long it took the get there, the horrible wind the blew that canopy off the small boat and the relentless sun that proceeded to burn us all to a crisp on the way back.

I was born in New Orleans, and I've shot a million "tourist-like" photos of the French Quarter and the city in general. If anyone thinks my photos are boring and repetitive, who cares? I don't.

"I would like to think that Instagram should be reserved for one's better photos"

 

Why? Who put you in charge of Instagram? And why do you care what other people do with their travels? And aren't those all copyright violations in that video?

The pictures I have taken that I appreciate most are of people and places the have changed or are now gone.

And old man's photographic perspective, I suppose.

The first few lines of an old Beatles song come to mind.

 

"There are places I remember

All my life though some have changed

Some forever not for better

Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life I've loved them all...."

Lennon/ McCartney

The author, in the brief quote provided, sounds condescending. The article is better than the quote. I've heard "I can do that" or "My 10-year-old could that" as a response to some art, and the article gives good reasons why those kinds of statements are worth rethinking.

 

Some Instagram posters want to be liked. That's not as awful as the author is trying to make out. I think he's wrong when he says, "we should be conscious of the act of looking." Maybe he should be and maybe it's good advice for some photographers, but probably inapplicable to most Instagram users, who couldn't give a rat's patootie about the act of looking. They don't have time for it. They're probably on their way to biology class or to work at the fast food joint or to meet their boyfriend for a date.

 

I'm one of the few who might just be interested in the act of looking and what meaning it has. Just like I don't appreciate being put down as some sort of intellectual snob or elitist for doing that, I don't like when others are put down or when servitude is mentioned in the same breath as them for liking likable things.

 

Steven Shore did something important. No one is obliged to do what he did or to take pictures for the reasons he did or be made to feel they're servants of some lesser purpose because their goal in taking pictures isn't as lofty as one of the seminal photographers of our times.

The author of the article (who is a she, does that make any difference perhaps hmm, lol) is simply pointing out a fact, not a rule to follow by.

That's false. The author says, "It is a reminder that we should be conscious of the act of looking." She's not just pointing out a fact. She's telling Instagram users what they ought to be doing.

who is a she, does that make any difference

I guess enough that you felt the need to point it out.

to be so defensive

I'll bet people love it when you argue with them so substantively.

That doesn't make the way most people use photography free from any criticism.

Of course not. I never said it does. To me, though, most people using Instagram for photos ought to be free from criticism by an art critic that their goals aren't similar to those of Steven Shore and that art critic should understand that Instagram photography doesn't generally have much to do with "the act of looking," because it's something very different from what she's talking about. It's like saying my making a quick piece of toast and a plain scrambled egg in the morning before work is lacking acute culinary variety and spice, so important to the art of cooking. All I'm looking to do is get something quick into my stomach.

Spare me the faux romanticism of it all...

Don't get what's faux romantic about my thoughts.

Yeah, a real struggle for life that must be when you have the freedom to not only use your eyes but also your mind but find yourself "too busy".

Going to biology class is probably a more important use of a student's mind to them than thinking about the act of looking when posting a pic to Instagram. It's about priorities. Not everyone uses their minds for what this critic wants them to.