Gatekeeping Photographers

How do you feel about photographers who gatekeep?

Gatekeeping is when you refuse to share a location of where you took a photo at. Many hiking photographers gatekeep for the sake of "protecting" natural areas but also sort of brag about being able to see it.

If you don't trust the world with going to these places, why show the world that they exist in your photos? Gatekeeping is a big hypocritical if you really look at it.

This might start a controversial discussion. Let's just all remember to be friends.

I generally try to provide at least a general location and a date along with any photos I post online. The exception might be if it were an older picture I took that I didn't have the information about.

Not to disclose that information if I had it would be something I would only do if I had a compelling reason. Examples might be if it were something so rare or valuable I felt it could cause a lot people to go out looking for it and as a result damage or destroy the thing they were looking for or put themselves in danger because of the location. Something like spotting any Ivory-billed woodpecker or unknown ancient rock art would make me think twice about publicly disclosing the location. I would probably report something of that magnitude to relevant experts before I posted anything and differ to their guidance about posting pictures. Also, if I thought giving out the location might affect the privacy of others, I might keep the details undisclosed.

The point about posting a picture without location details would be that I was lucky enough to photograph something rare and I want to ensure its preservation and scientific study, yet also share photos with people who have that same desire. Simply posting pictures without locations with an attitude of "I know where this is, but you don't," would be selfish if it didn't serve a genuine purpose.

Jeff Ulrich said:

Simply posting pictures without locations with an attitude of "I know where this is, but you don't," would be selfish if it didn't serve a genuine purpose.

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That's what gets me the most about it. The people who do that.

If someone puts in the legwork to find these places, that's awesome! If they don't want to share that's understandable, I still like the pictures. Sometimes people have an Alltrails or something that gives their spots away!