Maybe it's better to put the camera away...
Some time ago, the journalist Isidoro Merino wondered on his blog El Viajero Astuto ** if it was a good idea for journalists to reveal secret corners to the world, ** but I am very afraid that not only we are revealing where they can be found corners, people or exotic phenomena. Also many photographers, amateurs or professionals, do it thanks to Internet. And the thing is not new. In fact, in what was my first article on photography, I already covered the subject almost four years ago, although with a very different approach to how I do it here.
In 1998 I visited Lisbon with a friend. It was a time when we were both enthusiastic about reading the works by Fernando Pessoa . On one of our walks we went to the street of the Dorados, in which Bernardo Soares, one of the writer's heteronyms, supposedly worked. In it we found a stale tavern little, or nothing, frequented by tourists, despite being in the center of the city. We ordered wine, we loved it; We asked what wine it was and the tavern keeper answered us with some brusqueness: "Green, green wine."
When I have returned to the city, I have never been able to find that tavern even though I have walked the street of the Gilders again. I do not know if it has disappeared, if it is really memory plays tricks on me and the establishment was not exactly on that street or if it was all a dream. I like to think that it is about that last one, that that tavern only exists in my memory.
There are few unknown paradises left
If I had gone to that tavern today, I would surely have taken photos and maybe I would not have delighted in the same way with that delicious green wine . In fact, I would have taken many photos, I would have published them on my social networks and placed them on Instagram. In this way, in addition to remember exactly the place, he would have suggested others to visit him. And that bartender probably should have made it clear to heavier guys like me that his wine did not come from any illustrious vineyard, which was, plain and simple, vinho verde.
But on that trip he did not want to carry the heavy Pentax P30T that he used then; he had only connected me to the internet two or three times, he didn't take as many photos as he does now and the ones he took were only seen by a handful of friends. Instead of being aware of a camera, I preferred to wander aimlessly through the streets of Lisbon looking for literary ghosts.
For all these reasons, it may not hurt that, if you take a photo with your iPhone of some place that Is it really worth it , turn off the GPS, the internet connection or even the device itself and dedicate yourself to savoring the legend that your memory is retaining. Here are three tips to avoid destroying the charm of a place:
If you go to the Alfama district, in Lisbon, forget the camera and let yourself be carried away by the fados
1. If you take photos, don't shoot too many . Do not try to steal the soul of any place that still has it intact. For your photo album and for you, it may be better that the photos they take do not show every last detail of that place. Your imagination will thank you in time.
two. Do not post the photos on the internet . And if you do, at least not the positions on a map, or give too many clues as to where that wonderful place you have photographed is. Geolocation may be fine for some things, but not for adding places that are at risk of being manhandled by hordes of guys armed with cameras.
3. Respect people. Maybe the first two tips don't give a damn. But at least respect the people who inhabit or frequent that place that you, like Doctor Livingstone, think you have discovered. If you are going to take a photo in which someone appears, at least talk a little with him, ask him for permission to shoot the camera and make sure he doesn't mind if you destroy his paradise.
Should we or should we not photograph everything we see?
*This article was published in April 2012 and updated in August 2017.