Stupidity
I got an email last night from a participant from my Harris workshop last year telling me he’s in South America. His email told me that he’d been to see the Stone Tree (El Arbol de Piedra) in Bolivia.
He told me that there is now a fence around it, because there have been too many tourists climbing on top of it.
Whilst I was there, I did think that it was amazing how the entire stone sculpture was so vulnerable, yet I was grateful that I had easy access to it so I could photograph it. In other parts of the world, we are getting a little too controlling of our heritage – so much protection that it can actually spoil a location.
But I think that in this case, the fence has been a necessity. I did notice whilst I was there, that people had been scratching their names on the stone tree.
I often find this sort of behaviour at odds with a location like this. There are certain kinds of people who come to visit a location of this nature. They appreciate the beauty and rarity of what they find here.
But there must, I fear, come a point when a place gets so popular that it appears on the radar of those that ‘don’t get it’, that will never appreciate its rarity and think that the best thing to do when they get there is climb all over it and scribble their names on it.
That’s the part of human nature I find hardest to deal with about such rare and beautiful places like this.
It seems that morons can apply for, and get granted passports too.
it can get worse: because of tourists in Ye Liu Geological Park in Taiwan a set of new signs appeared (don’t spit, don’t carve names), they put a warden with a whistle and finally, after the main attraction needed to be fenced off for maintenance – a fake one for taking photos was erased…
http://franeksiedlok.blogspot.com/2010/03/interesting-article-has-been-recently_30.html
my rant about stupidity…
Comment by bazant — 11 May, 2010 @ 10:03 pm
Unfortunately this is not just a modern problem. The Neolithic Maeshowe tomb in Orkney is covered with carved graffiti of people’s names and less than insightful comments. These were carved by the Vikings in the 12th century and are written as runes. When they did this 900 years ago, the tomb was already over 4000 years old.
The passage of time has made this particular act of vandalism a historic curiosity but I share your disgust with the modern equivalent. Only last year, some idiot wrote graffiti on the walls of a 6000 year old house in Skara Brae. Even the remotest parts of the Highlands and islands are spoiled by the litter of previous visitors.
Comment by Norman Bews — 11 May, 2010 @ 10:06 pm
Hi Norman,
This is interesting. I do recall now, that graffiti is noting new. Interesting to hear that Maeshowe has such old graffiti. If I remember correctly, I’m sure the Spynx has it too. Clearly, this is something about human nature where some of us (certainly, I’ve never had the inkling to mark my name on something) feel a need to mark our existence.
Still, I think we can excuse the vikings. But in this current age when we have more of a conscious awareness of the rarity of some places and objects, it seems crazy that someone wants to place graffiti on a place like Skara Brae. What might feel like a good idea at the age of 19 perhaps, such a transient thought, can have long lasting effects.
From a photographer’s perspective, it makes the world a much harder place to photograph if places become cordoned off.
I enjoy my freedom, I hate it when my freedom is reduced due to the actions of the minority.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 11 May, 2010 @ 10:22 pm