Daniel Doyle Pleasantville photographer believes the arrival of Instagram and other social media platforms has been positive for photographers everywhere. However, he is also concerned with the trend for selfies and travel photography where the soul of the medium has been largely been lost. The photographer is constantly looking to find the best ways of getting his work in front of the public but believes the true sense of travel photography is much more than simply capturing the beautiful landscapes we can now visit.
Photographer Sean O’Hagan wrote an article for The Guardian that captured the feelings of Daniel Doyle as it took a look at what travel photography is and how it has changed with the introduction of Instagram. For Doyle, the essence of travel photography is reportage with the photographer tasked with finding a stunning image and telling a story at the same time.
In the eyes of Daniel Doyle Pleasantville photographer, the art of telling a story through photography is what gives the medium its soul. The ease with which an image can be shot using a smartphone passed through an editing app, and posted to Instagram is not giving the photographer the time to consider what they are trying to say. That is not to say Instagram and other social media platforms are not a valuable resource for the experienced and budding photographer to grow their experience and knowledge. The issue is the chasing of the perfect image does not allow the inexperienced travel photographer the time to spend learning about the culture they are entering.
The genre of travel photography is constantly changing and adapting to the needs of travelers around the world. Daniel Doyle believes the time taken by experienced travel photographer to capture a story or a moment in time is something the majority of people posting travel images to Instagram do not spend the right amount of time exploring. For example, the best travel photographers immerse themselves in the local culture and look to capture images of their travels and the people they meet as they move around a certain part of the world. By doing so, the soul of the individual or location is revealed more deeply than by simply arriving in a destination and snapping a few selfies using a Smartphone before uploading them to Instagram.
When we set out to take expressive and emotional travel images we should be looking to create a connection between ourselves, the location, and the local culture. A stunning location with the images centered correctly and the lighting corrected by a filter may make us long to travel to a location but can it tell us something of the heart of the location. Much of the travel photography seen on Instagram does not possess any form of connection to the culture being depicted and fails to make an emotional connection between the viewer and the image.
In the view of Daniel Doyle, the issue of how to alter these problems for the better is to spend more time exploring the culture and less time simply looking for the most beautiful locations on offer. The questions we should be asking ourselves when we are looking to get involved in travel photography is what story are we wanting to tell? Do the local people have a story they can pass on to me? Who am I hoping to show my images to? Only by slowing down the process and learning from the culture we are working in can we find a better way of creating travel photographs with the intimacy and emotional connection we long for