Curious Minds Podcast S2: Are You Really a Travel Photographer?

From photographic storytelling to vacation selfies, discover how tools and technique affect our travel photos, and their impact on the world

​​Curious Minds is an original podcast by Domestika that explores the curiosities and untold histories of the creative world. Every two weeks, we interview renowned creatives to discover the strange and fascinating stories behind different topics: like why stop motion endures in the digital age, or why we doodle.

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Even if you’re not a souvenir person, you likely come back from vacation with precious mementos right there in your pocket: your photos!

Capturing memories to look back on and share with others is an impulse older than photography itself, as many artists used to paint and sketch their travels. But when photography was invented, the world suddenly got a lot smaller. With no rules as to what "travel photography" exactly is, the art form is open to interpretation and the hashtags on social media are absolutely packed with everything from journalistic investigations of a place to smiling selfies with friends.

So, what makes travel photography distinct from general vacation snaps? And does photographing our every move around the planet have a darker side?

This week on Domestika’s Curious Minds podcast, we talk with three experts about the art and the psychology of taking travel photos. Learn how approaches differ, how trends and social media affect professional photographers, and how photography literally affects tourism and our very experience of the world around us.

Click on the link below to listen and subscribe on Spotify. Alternatively, you can find the episode on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Season 2, Episode 3: Are You Really a Travel Photographer?

Our guests in this episode are Bob Krist, Alina Rudya, and Alixandra Barasch.

Bob Krist is a veteran photographer whose career began in the mid-70s, and who has shot for National Geographic and a huge range of international travel magazines. He shares advice to young photographers, including finding the interest in your own backyard and understanding that no two people will capture the same image in the exact same way. You’re looking for a universal story, but in your own unique style. He also provides a quote we might now have to print out and hang on a wall: “the camera is a license to be curious.”

Alina Rudya (@alina_rudya) is a professional photographer who notes the complex interplay of approaches and genres in travel photography. Still life, portraiture, documentary, and more: these potential styles will affect things like your composition, lighting, and other aspects of your photos. She also talks about the complex issue of geotagging photos on social media—as coveted images can lead to out-of-control tourism and damage to the environment.

Finally, Alixandra Barasch is a marketing professor at NYU Stern School of Business. She studies how technologies shape consumer experience, and here talks about how taking photographs affects our psychological experience of a space. In picking details and making decisions, we can increase positive feelings. On the flipside, social pressure and high expectations created by others on Instagram can lead to mismatched ideas in our head, and a negative experience when we actually see a place in real life.

Listen to the episode to delve deeper into all of this and more!

Listen and subscribe to the Curious Minds podcast

Remember, to stay up to date with every episode, you can subscribe to Curious Minds for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

If you'd like to discover more stories behind curiosities of the creative world we often take for granted, explore all the episodes from Curious Minds on our blog.

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