Experts predict that this summer travel season will be . As an anthropologist, I'd argue that the money for travel is worth the experience of getting out of your comfort zone. And I'd also argue that taking pictures makes for great souvenirs if you're trying to keep your purchases to a minimum.
But there are hidden costs to taking some of those great photos. I conduct research in Guatemala, a popular Central American destination for Americans. Every year I see people taking pictures of Indigenous women, children, and sometimes men, often because Indigenous Peoples are using their distinctive Indigenous clothing.
Or perhaps they are doing some kind of activity that we often do not have to do in more economically developed countries, like hauling water on our heads. Those pictures end up everywhere from social media feeds to publications. And while they make nice memories of the different ways of life you witnessed or even experienced, asking Indigenous subjects' permission to take and distribute that photo is more important because of what those photos ultimately end up doing: further exploiting an already exploited group of people.
Generally, I see two kinds of photos that do this. One kind of photo I often see that marginalizes its subjects is of an Indigenous woman and her young child, perhaps even so young as to still be in a woven carrier. The picture is beautiful, maybe even meaningful if the subject is an acquaintance.
But when done without permission or carelessly, the.
