A recurrent yarn here is how important situational awareness is for photographers.
Not only can it save your life when you are in high-risk situations, but also it’s just a good rule of thumb for life in general.
One group that routinely shows little to no situational awareness is tourists. Whether taking photos for social media or family memories, many of these people aren’t professionals and it shows.
That’s probably why one Japanese town has decided to end the fun for everyone rather than engage in a fruitless campaign of teaching others how to respect space and other people. After all, why waste the effort when, anecdotally, it appears to get worse every year? A permanent solution is just to take away the prime spots for photo shoots and that’s exactly what Fujikawaguchiko did.
The Guardian reports that the town tried everything but nothing worked (surprise). Tourists would routinely overrun a parking lot reserved for a local dental office and also ignored any kind of warnings from officials present. The article notes that the majority of these tourists are “non-Japanese” who considered the spot quintessential “Land of the Rising Sun” fare and that this was likely influenced by social media posts intimating this on some level. As we’ve reported here, social media can destroy natural wonders from fields of wildflowers to ancient rocks because people don’t care and want to take the one-millionth capture of the same worn-out spot in the hope, we assume, that their capture will somehow be superior to the 999,999 that came before.
Any thoughts that you might have on this Japanese town taking action against poorly behaved tourists are welcome in the comments below.
We have some more photography headlines you might want to read in our news section.
