Tourist Snapshots

Quick question. Did you get any more substantive permission from Eva to publish a nude photo of her online? “So long as you only share the best ones,” she said, “I don’t mind." -- said before facebook was even launched -- isn't really permission to blast it all over the world. It sounds more like a comment made thinking you might show the photos to some buddies.

Stay classy.

You would still recognize her if you knew her. Bad taste to include that photograph.

I agree with Kim.

Contrary to the first two comments, I actually think the photos are classy nude portraits and done really well. She did give him permission to share and Rolf did share the good ones. If I were her, I wouldn't mind at all. And to be fair, her face is blurred, and yes while she might be recognised, so what? It was done in good taste.

That aside, I just wanted to say, this is one brilliantly written essay. Thank you for writing this, Rolf. For someone like me who loves both travelling and photography, the existence of digital photography has definitely add a new experience to travelling. So much so that often in times, one need to just stop with the camera, and just enjoy the experience.

Or so that's what I keep telling myself from time to time. :)

I found this story via longform.org and recognized Rolf Potts' byline because of his series of interviews with travel writers.

This piece is so gracefully written, and has so much insight in it - while many of us have thought about the predicaments of "capturing" our travel experience through photography, I have not seen anyone else spell out these issues so incisively.

Given travel photography's various limitations, I sometimes wonder what alternative approaches we could take that would be at least as satisfying. Keep the deleted photos, and the cropped portions? Photograph from a radically different angle? Shut off our cameras and just trust our memories? Somehow these don't feel like meaningful alternatives.

In response to the feedback about the nude shots. Who is to say the author didn't contact the subject of the shots to ask for further permission to publish them? I find it flippant to insult his 'classy'-ness without knowing what his research procedures were. There is no doubt that the piece is written in the best of taste.

Moreover, it's completely missing the point of the piece.