There are two types of travel pictures. The ones that are supposed to be pretty and the ones that say, “I’ve been there.” The first type is pretty self-explanatory, but the latter, for people who aren’t sure what I’m talking about, they are the same with the exception of your sunburnt self, awkwardly standing in the center, squinting at the camera. When you put someone in the way of the subject, he becomes the subject and unless you travel with models that person will be very aware of the camera and it will show. So do we really need to put ourselves in our travel pictures?
If you look back at all my travel pictures, you won’t find many people in them, and if there are, they are not looking at the lens. Strangely enough animals get to look at my lens, probably because they have no idea what a camera is and therefore their reaction feels genuine. Put a camera in someone’s face and you’ll have a handful of reactions. Some will grab the opportunity to pose, others might shy away and some will just be sick of your constant paparaziing. None of these reactions would have happened without a camera pointing at them, and this bothers me. In science this effect has a name. They call that the observers effect. While it’s probably not the context they meant it for, it’s the idea that observing something alters its state.
I’m not saying travel pictures of people don’t have their place in this world. I don’t even dislike them, but when it comes to my picture I don’t want to tell people how to pose in them, so I just avoid it.(or sneak a picture without them noticing) However, I do find one exception/solution to that: selfies. Yes, the act of taking a picture of yourself and no, I do not mean the ones in your bathroom showing that new bikini or your post-workout abs (or both, let’s not make gender assumptions). There is something different about selfies. The photographer isn’t observing anymore. He’s right in the action and owning up to it. No one pretending the camera isn’t here, no one is fooling anyone. The awkwardness, poseyness, anger becomes part of the picture.
A good summary for that blurb of text would be that I look for authenticity in pictures. For the picture to fits its purpose. As much as some people like to hate on selfies and how “it portrays the decay of our self-absorbed society!” I think it’s one of the greater additions to photography and a good and more intimate replacement to that age-old, posing in front of the camera type picture.
PS:. you may notice I don’t take many selfies. This is partly due to the fact that my lenses don’t autofocus and it’s not a light camera, and just because I like them it doesn’t mean I have to take them.
