'Selfie tourism' - AIBU?

On a recent visit to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam it was really spoiled by people taking large numbers of selfies in front of pictures, often trying different poses for quite a while. I wondered why galleries don't try phone-free sessions as there must be others who just want to look.

Interesting thread.

It doesn’t bother me if it’s the youth. I think “Aww, look at them having fun!”

It’s a fellow fully grown adult. I feel a bit repulsed.

”great fun”

who for?

We did a whole summer of plonking the then children in front of "statement walls", statement fields or whatever when we were out for a personal album. Great fun, and it taught them that what you see on the camera is almost always very very different, or can be presented very differently to the actual reality.

"looks good in photo you wouldn't guess it was a grotty corner of a bog standard city cafe would you"

Hopefully it will, as most things do, run it's course.

A lot of people who take selfies for "the gram/socials" know they are cherry picking the shots, posing, not really being as authentic as they are making out basically. And if they are doing it they must know that many others are.

So everyone will be making and looking at amateur, curated, fake photographs of everything and everyone else and eventually think this is a waste of time.

And yes we've seen it everywhere.

Usually followed by a mum-lecture to the teens, god nothing is going to get done with your generation is it? You might whinge at us lot (X-ers) but what exactly are you lot doing? (I would like to point out this is a general whinge, not directed at our teens because they don't really do selfies, "until your girlfriend makes you in the future there will be no getting away from it") you complain that past generations have fucked up the planet, you lot get more computing power in your pocket than they flew to the moon with and look what you are doing? Fake photos in front of, well anything, a pink wall for fuck's sake.

And on and on it goes. Some selfies spark me off more than others :-)
Think I might have scared them off. Or perhaps planted a seed to help them be part of the solution in future instead of part of the problem.

I take photos, I have a beautiful DSLR that is used on manual settings most of the time, with different lenses, we have been known to go out on photoshoots where I request they wear "clothing complementary to the background we are heading for" - none of these photographs end up online. Friends can see them, if they want to, when they come round.

Occasionally we take photos of things to send via private groups but the drive behind them is to make the recipients smile/laugh, they are not to be broadcast across the nations to make strangers feel, ????, what exactly? Impressed, jealous, happy?

So we understand photography, but this selfie stuff, yes it's technically photography but the motivation for it seems very different sometimes.

I think the style of the photography also demands space: the one that centres an individual perfectly framed against an idyllic backdrop.

You can have 10 people in a row all taking their time over a photo of a nice view, not getting in each others way. But if you want you-in-front-of-a-nice-view (without anyone else in frame, which the style demands) then you can't have nine other people standing alongside you.

People taking a regular snap of them/their family in front of a view tend to be over and done quickly ('say cheese' - snap - done) and be less preoccupied by achieving perfection.

I think the selfie thing ( as oppposed to objecting to people taking photos) is that it tends to go hand in hand - only people who are obsessively taking photos of themselves tend to be the ones taking over a place

you average good photographer is unlikely to spend ages on a standard shot

Ah, I’ve never come across anything like that. Just fields of sunflowers being grown by farmers as a crop.

That's still very polite.

Them: But we're taking photos!
Me: Yes, you and every other self obsessed twat. If you want exclusive use of this space, pay to hire it out for your exclusive use. Otherwise, do one."

Oh yes.. My the marjorelle gardens were maaaad for people taking multiple poses/different groupings and completely bloody blocking anyone else.... Bloody busy too..

I did as you did..
To start with gave them a few minutes... When I was still standing there 5 mins later I asked to pass /see the view... I got an indignant... 'we're taking photos!'... Um yes... But you're also being madly entitled about this... We too have paid handsomely to see these gardens!

The ability to be able to pay to walk into fields (plus associated stuff like cafes, shops etc attached to fields) is a response to the demand for photo ops. I'm assuming that OP was talking about one of those kind of places (though admittedly her post doesn't actually say that explicitly, it could just be a regular field of sunflowers).

We went when the light and background were right. Some places were better known and busier than others. No, we didn't expect anyone to stay out of our way but we found people generally just naturally walked around us. We tried to be considerate. I can't remember pissing anyone off.

But I'm getting the impression that a lot of posters object to the fact that the photos are selfies rather than inconsiderate behaviour that would be obnoxious whatever you were photographing.

But the ubiquity of digital photography and smartphones could make us all just more used to doing quick, candid shots that don't require elaborate preparation - just capturing a moment.

Back when you might use 2-3 rolls of film over a 2 week holiday and were working with a finite number of photographs we had to carefully consider and stage our shots. So you could understand in those days that everyone wanted to get the iconic shot, make sure everyone is in frame and smiling and take a minute or two over it. If anything the issue of people hogging spots to stage photos could have been bigger then than it is now.

So I don't think we can just blame smartphones for this, it's a wider cultural phenomenon created by social media that people are going to much greater lengths to stage a certain style of photograph.

Eh? Sunflower fields exist because sunflowers are a food crop. Like potato fields exist, and cabbage fields.

The sunflower fields aren't really the best (worst?) example of selfie culture as they basically exist for photo-ops, and these kind of venues (lavender fields, pumpkin patches etc) have really expanded specifically in response to the demand for selfies. So the sunflowers might not even have been there for OP to photograph if not for the people staging elaborate photo shoots.

But I think you can acknowledge that and still be a bit despairing of the wider trend of "doing it for the 'gram" which to my mind is just making people more superficial and selfish.

No I think tourists all had cameras in the 1970s / but film was expensive so you were careful what photos you took. Holidays were so rare that the camera was a must

I find it interesting the amount of simplistic thinking - the inability to understand that a small amount of stuff can be ok so a large amount must also be ok.

there may be a grey area - at what point does taking selfies become antisocial ?

I've been thinking about this since the discussion came up and it doesn't make me furious but it does jar me, even over and above the carving up public space thing.

It's kind of like, we all know the internet is on all the time, but still people bringing internet things and behaviour into real life right next me, especially in nice real life, I dunno, it just feels like media and commerce and all the rest of it is inescapable, and takes me out of whatever headspace I'm in, sitting on the beach or whatever.

No, you wouldn't "know it if you saw it". You think you see one thing, but others watching exactly the same scenario see something else. We don't know which is true unless we ask those taking the photos exactly what they're photographing and why.

I think the main difference between travelling now and traveling however many years ago is not the selfie culture but rather that so many more people have access to photography and thus more people are taking photographs. It was easy to be patient with a handful of tourists with their cameras. Much harder when every visitor has their smartphone. Yet we all want our turn.

Having said all that, I'm off camping today - my friend and I are booked into a scenic beach campsite for the night. I know she'll be selfying away completely unaware of anyone else around her...but I'll only roll my eyes inwardly. I'll even take a few shots of her myself to help.
It's what people do now isn't it?
Ok not me. But lots.

Did you go at peak times, block the thing that everyone has come to see and expect everyone to keep out of your way, for up to an hour, doing it?
I'd like to add in the fashion to go to shopping places and do a dance to whatever is trending/been put on a dance challenge. At least a lot of gyms now have rules and the previous nonsense has lessened.

I used to model for some photographers (I am not a professional model and I'm not beautiful; there was a niche, and no it wasn't porn). We used to go to certain places for the right background. Is that different?

Wellll yes...all of that but also and fundamentally, I think many of us at 40+ were raised not to make too much of oneself. Maybe we have a stick up our arse but at least it's not a selfie stick. With the absolute integration of social media now, this generation are very different.

Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is debatable.

BUT there is just 'something' about some of those selfie-takers that is very aggravating

I'd say that trespassing, damaging crops, risking their lives on rocks, bridges or cliffs, parking dangerously and/or illegally, making others queue to see the view or neglecting their DC in potentially hazardous environments is the difference.

The selfie takers are usually guilty of at least one of those, unlike the general landscape photographers.

nnnnnggghhh...I understand why people here are pointing out the OP's hypocrisy BUT there is just 'something' about some of those selfie-takers that is very aggravating. And of course, who seems aggravating will vary depending on who we are.

As a hillwalker I occasionally witness summit posturing for photos. For me, the most annoying one is the standing on one leg, arms akimbo YAY pose.
Put your arms down ffs. Compose yourself.

It's my problem though. I know that.