What makes it worth photographing lesser-known places?
Articolo in Italiano QUI
Landscape photography is often linked to the ‘sense of the extraordinary’, that lead us to say ‘wow, I really want to go to this place’ when in front of a beautiful landscape. In recent years these places have become more and more reduced to the famous ones we see on social media, and while it is undeniable that some of them are incredibly beautiful, you may lose the magic of exploring the place.
I often thought that beautiful and famous places had lost some of their charm in my eyes: The idea to go to a location and find it full of other photographers and then have a photo identical to the hundreds that we can find online is personally unattractive. I then wondered if it is still possible to go to a known and photographically appreciated place and bring home something different, a more personal perspective.
Sometimes it happens to go after a particular location because it attracts likes on social media, and allows to grow the profile and visibility of the photographer who proposes it, but is it really worth having our social profiles all with the same photos just to make ourselves visible? Personally, I find photography an introspective creative process, that should be aimed at the personal growth of the photographer rather than that of his social profile. Although it is undeniable that seeing your photos recognized as valid and beautiful is satisfying, the only people to be 100% satisfied of the photo should be ourselves. In this perspective of shooting for myself, I decided to try to look at a particularly famous and visited location as the Lofoten Islands with a different eye, more attentive to the new and less to bring home at all costs the spectacular.
Small honourable mention for the little-known minor sisters of the Lofoten, the Vesterålen Islands, attached to the most famous archipelago but snubbed by the most although incredibly rich in interesting spots that are definitely worth exploring. Regrettably, I was only able to dedicate a brief visit, but I have reserved the chance to return in the future to deepen the knowledge!
Is it no longer worth taking pictures of famous places?
By saying that, I don’t want to tell you to stop looking for the most famous places. Of course, generally if a place is famous there is a reason, it is always a lovely place worth photographing. The message wants to be at most to not go to the usual places just to have “the photo”, but to enjoy the photographic process, be creative, and love the moment you are living. If you choose to photograph a known location there are, in fact, a lot of variations that can affect your photo and make it different, such as the time of year, the weather conditions, the different angle of light or the composition you choose.
What makes a photo unique is always the photographer, if you like a place and want to see it and photograph it even if there are 1000 identical photos go there and do it, because what counts is your personal satisfaction in having your photo of a place that you liked and that has been a source of inspiration. Just don’t be discouraged if you can’t get the perfect shot of a perfect place during a trip due to lack of time or favorable conditions, but rather look for a new perspective.
My trip to Lofoten – why go after the same locations?
In August 2023 I spent 10 days at the Lofoten Islands, an archipelago certainly enchanting but also hyper-photographed. As soon as I arrived, I immediately noticed the huge number of tourists in the most famous places, and after a couple of unnerving and overcrowded visits I tried to put my idea into practice and look for something new.
Probably the most disappointing moment for me was the first day when, when I arrived in the surroundings of Hamnøy, I realized that the area was so crowded that I couldn’t even park my car. So, the idea of going through the ultra-famous Reinebringen and then finding myself on top of a mountain trying to frame something other than other people’s heads didn’t really fit into my concept of photographic introspection. After spending half a day cursing all the tourists present (among which I was also included), I decided to try to change perspective.
Unknown places
The first unexpected location was a tiny and anonymous beach at the roadside. I was going to two other beaches nearby, both of which turned out to be full of people and obviously unesthetic footprints on the beach, when I spotted it from the car window and found it lovely. I stopped in the moment, around noon, and I took some test photos to find a composition that I liked and also something with my analogue camera, and then I patiently waited to attempt a sunset and then a sunrise.
When around 5 in the morning the sky turned pink, I could not have been happier, not only for the photo but also for the fact that I finally found myself in a place that no one knew and found a new shooting point.
Same location, different point of view
The second location I wanted to photograph was a particularly famous beach, as there are many in this Norwegian archipelago, but taken from another angle. The beach in question is Kvalvika beach, almost always photographed from above by a mountain that overlooks it, but I chose to capture it from the side along a path that in a couple of hours leads to another mountain on the opposite side of the beach.
In this case the sunset was really epic, and I could take several photos over the time the sunset lasted, enjoying also a fantastic evening in nature.
An eye for detail
Those who love landscape photography generally photograph the scene in a “wide-angle” way, so as to take it as wide as possible, but you can also opt for a more minimalist and careful to detail photography. Obviously, this style is something not everyone like, but it can give as many satisfactions as the main one and can offer a different point of view of a place already seen several times.
While intimate and detail landscape photography is a genre that may not be appreciated by everyone, on the other hand it definitely helps to give a personal view of the scene, an intimate portrait of a single detail that has been captured perhaps only by the author of the photo, and that brings to a more personal dimension of photography.
In conclusion, was I happy not to have taken photos in the most famous places? Obviously, I don’t deny that I would have liked to shoot there too, but I knew that if I had gone out for the photo of the famous place, I probably would have been disappointed, and I wouldn’t even appreciate the moment. Looking for more than the most famous scenes has allowed me to discover places that I probably would never have found if I had stayed in the most popular ones, and certainly allowed me to go deeper into the place and love the photo experience 100%. Bringing this journey to my heart, I learned to appreciate even the lesser-known corners and to look at the details with a different eye, simply snapping to please myself.
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Valentina Parente 