NZPhotographer Issue 46, August 2021

impacts future photography. A classic example is a
very iconic church known for being captured under
the Milky Way here in New Zealand. Due to the sheer
impact of the number of people walking around it,
mainly to take photos, it has now been fenced off
for protection, affecting how well it can be both
experienced and photographed. I have witnessed
other actions just as damaging to a location by
photographers: sometimes these are the selfish
actions of one thoughtless individual, but more often
the actions of people who are quite unaware of their
impact of visiting or sharing a location. They might feel
their footprint is light, but the same footprint multiplied
by the 100 other photographers who visited that day
is not.
WHO ARE WE REALLY PHOTOGRAPHING
FOR?
There is a stunning vista across a certain New
Zealand lake that has become a “must capture”
location for any landscape photographer. The
other day, I found myself searching for images of
it on Google, and was surprised to find that two of
the first shots that came up were my own. One is
an image I held dear for many years; if you asked
me a few years ago, I might well have told you that
this was a unique and personal expression of this
vista. But when I look at this image now, although
it does still bring me happiness, I see there is little to
set it apart from the many captured there in great
light by other skilled photographers. We are often
afraid to return from well-known locations without
the perfect shot of an iconic view. However, a true
artist will be more afraid to return without an image
expressing their personal vision, and the urge to
capture popular scenes can be little more than a
distraction. This raises the question: should we be
photographing famous locations at all if we wish to
develop a unique body of work?
78 August 2021 NZPhotographer