Story Behind the Photo: Documentation vs. Conservation
A canyon in the American Southwest
Documenting landscape shots. Recording the location, date and time of the photograph, along with the, body, lens, film and exposure used to take it. Perhaps some notes about the weather and particular circumstances that affected the execution of the shot.
Through my years of landscape photography, I have slowly updated my documentation practices. Once I switched to digital photography, I used the metadata fields in the file header to store this information. The EXIF standard fields store all the camera and exposure information, and for a while, I had to record manually the location. Now, some of my camera bodies record the GPS location coordinates for every photograph.
A canyon in the American Southwest
While selling prints, I always felt that it was important to provide the date and location of the scene. I would provide this information on the back of the print with an archival rated felt pen. When the era of "internet photography" came through, I noticed though the years a shift on the interest of this information (location) being used to go and take the same photo or photos at that location. Paired with the Internet as a new source of gorgeous photography destinations, I think that digital photography dramatically increased the number of people showing up at these destinations.
A canyon in the American Southwest
Places like "Oxbow Bend", "Mesa Arch", "Sneak River Overlook", "Zion Virgin Bridge", "Zion Subway", "The Wave" and many others have become stunningly crowded with photographers that often are more concerned with photography than with the preservation of the place. Obviously, as I witness this, I can see that I am part of the problem.
Mesa Arch
Conflicted and without an easy answer, I have been modifying my documentation practices. Although I still retain all the location metadata, I strip it for any posting or publishing, and I no longer reference the specific location in the title. This has been the genesis of "Canyons of The American Southwest" title series, where I acknowledge the beauty of the region and landscape features, but do not provide a waypoint for people to travel and flood the place.
The infamous Wave
I think we live on a time where the combination of overpopulation and outdated notions of land usage are conspiring to degrade wilderness in general. Not sure at this point if photography will be critical to preserve some record before wilderness becomes an amusement park of sorts, or photography is a critical contributor to pave this path.
The American Southwest