Photo Gilles SabriƩ | Courtesy The New York Times
The article titled "At This Instagram Hot Spot, All the World’s a Stage (and the Buffalo’s a Prop)" appeared in The New York Times on June 28, 2021.
The New York Times' coverage of China has -on many occasions- been extremely negative (and in political and societal cases, deservedly so), but I fail to see the real intent of this article...even after I've read it a few times.
Many of its readers' comments also take issue with it, essentially asking what's the harm of staging photographs in a scenic region, providing pleasure to the photographers (presumably none are working professionals) who flock there and, in so doing, provide additional income to its impoverished farmers. After all, many countries, regions, areas, towns and villages do the same...for instance, Colonial Williamsburg and Mystic Seaport (to mention but a few) offer a myriad of photo opportunities with its staff wearing period costumes, speaking Olde English and posing for visitors. The Omo Valley in Ethiopia is well known for stagings of its tribes by unscrupulous photographers...adorning these beautiful people with incongruous props, headgear and flowers. Another example of staging are the beautiful photographs of the Inle Lake fishermen in Burma (which I've done and enjoyed doing).
At least, the stagings of the Chinese villagers et al don't seem to have demeaned their culture as those in the Omo Valley have done.
I expect many in the travel photography communities will view these arranged setups as inauthentic (of course they are) and fake. I also expect a number of the photographers taking part in these arranged photo sessions may win prizes in travel photography competitions.
But what's the big kerfuffle about? There's ample room for staged travel photography (which I've often done)....there's room for candid travel photography (which I've often done)...and there's room for the type of travel photography I always relish: "travel photography meets photojournalism".
Post Scriptum: One of the photographs in the article has a Chinese photographer wearing a red MAGA cap...š”
