THE HUMANITY OF WILDERNESS PHOTOGRAPHY?
Adrian Franklin
School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania , Hobart , Australia
Abstract
This paper begins by considering which humans are enrolled into wilderness through wilderness photography, and which ones are not. While ostensibly attempting to capture wilderness as a primordial space and pure nature, beyond and ideally excluding humanity, these photographs betray the human presence of the photographer as well as that of those whose desire it is to stand in their shoes; to enjoy their exclusive access to an (ideally) empty landscape. The demography of this humanity, the so-called humanitarian professional elite, is interesting. Members of this demographic are tourists in the wilderness, and the construction of wilderness as a type of place and a form of politics has a genealogy which includes leisurely access to, and seeking order for, an empty landscape free from the ‘impact' of humans—themselves excepted. Although their concern for nature is heartfelt and born of close association with it, comparisons can be made with other elites whose social identity is framed in part through exclusive access to emptied landscapes. This paper suggests there are problems with the wilderness concept, not least the way it has overshadowed other natures.
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