Can Destination Wedding Photography Ever Be Truly Sustainable?

I often feel uncomfortable about using the words sustainable and destination wedding in the same sentence. Shooting destination weddings is the ultimate goal for so many wedding photographers. But in a world that needs us all to be more conscious about our impacts on people and the planet, can we continue to travel all around the globe without having a negative impact?

In this conversation, JoAnna Haugen and I discuss the intersection of sustainable tourism, storytelling, and social impact, particularly in the context of destination weddings. She emphasizes the importance of mindful travel practices, the environmental and economic impacts of destination weddings, and the role of photographers as influencers in shaping travel narratives. Joanna advocates for local expertise, cultural sensitivity, and ethical considerations in photography, urging professionals to reflect on their impact and make informed choices in their work.

Key Takeaways

• Sustainable tourism practices are essential for positive social impact.
• Destination weddings have significant environmental and economic footprints.
• Photographers play a crucial role as influencers in travel narratives.
• Cultural sensitivity is vital when photographing in diverse locations.
• Maximizing local expertise enhances the authenticity of travel experiences.
• Educating oneself about local customs and issues is crucial for respectful travel.
• Supporting local economies can mitigate the negative impacts of tourism.
• Traveling sustainably involves reducing carbon footprints and waste.
• It’s important to ask couples about their motivations for destination weddings.
• Sharing knowledge about ethical travel can help educate clients.

Navigating Sustainable Tourism

Ethics of Flying

We’re talking a lot about the ethics of flying, and how tour operators and other travel companies should be creating offerings potentially with alternative transportation options and/or learning to incorporate the journey into the story.

Last-Chance Tourism

Last chance tourism is the idea that people are visiting places that are particularly fragile. This includes places like Antarctica or the Galapagos Islands or the Great Barrier Reef, places that environmentally speaking are really struggling. How do we educate people about fragile environments while reckoning with the fact that travel is accelerating their decline?

Integration of Locals’ Opinions

We are also having ongoing conversations about the importance and the need to better integrate local people’s opinions and insights into how tourism should show up in places around the world. For example, the stories coming out of popular tourist destinations like Barcelona. This is happening all over the world. Local residents are being priced out of their homes and are finding that places that they love are completely overcrowded by travelers. So there’s this need and ongoing conversation about how we prioritize local people and their needs as it relates to how tourism shows up in their spaces.

Climate Crisis

The climate crisis is a big challenge that lies across all of these topics. How we get to a place, how we manage our waste once we’re there, how we mitigate any natural disasters, how we manage things like water and food. Lots of conversations are being had, and a lot of solutions are being surfaced at the local level, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

Destination Weddings: Environmental and Economic Considerations

Environmental

Flying has a massive carbon footprint and there is no escaping that. We can talk about carbon offsets, we can talk about sustainable aviation fuels, and all of these up-and-coming technologies, but the fact of the matter is that flying has a large carbon footprint. And so that should be a consideration for anybody who’s thinking about destination weddings.

But the environmental footprint doesn’t stop there. Every time an additional person goes somewhere, they’re using natural resources. They’re creating solid waste. They’re using water. For something like a wedding, I think it’s particularly important to mention the amount of waste that can be left behind as a result of that wedding.

Economic

There’s an economic aspect to it as well. We need to ask who is benefiting financially from a destination wedding. Many destination weddings are held at large international resorts, many of them with all-inclusive packages, and these tend to be large chains versus locally owned and run accommodations. However, international chains are notoriously known for removing economic resources from the local community. We call that leakage and it is a very real problem.

Also, there are considerations about what is being sourced locally. Are food, flowers, and other materials that are being used at the wedding being flown in? Or are they locally sourced? Are we supporting local farmers and local growers?

How many days are people flying in for, and where are they staying? Are people just coming for a weekend or three, or four days? And are they staying it locally owned accommodation or at these international, all-inclusive resorts where they don’t need to leave the hotel and are unlikely to spend money in the local community?

Social/Cultural Cost

The social and cultural cost is particularly pertinent for photographers. Of course, they want their photos to be beautiful. But we need to be asking, are people in these places being treated with respect? Is there a cultural or historical context that should be noted concerning the backdrops that are being chosen? Or are the places where photos are being taken being used just as pretty backdrops?

When we use those places as props, as something simply to be consumed, then we disrespect the place that we’re visiting.

It’s more than just flying to the destination, but also how are we treating the destination? What are we leaving behind? Who’s benefiting by our presence of traveling for a wedding or an elopement?

It is so easy for people to just show up and consume a place as if they have the right to just do what they want and take what they want from it and leave behind waste and use resources and go home without ever thinking about what it means to be there.

The Role of Photographers as Influencers in Travel

We’re all influencers. People turn to their friends and family, and to social media more than any other place when they’re planning their own trips and thinking about where they’re going to go on their holidays. So the way that we present a place on social media matters and absolutely pretty places are appealing. When people want to go somewhere, it’s often because we want to “escape the real world” or whatever the case might be.

The Impact of Sharing Photos

It’s like we have an idealized vision of what a place looks like and that often comes from the way that places are framed or portrayed in social media and photography. It’s really important to realize the power of that beautiful photo, because when we share a beautiful image, when we share something that people look at and say, “I want to go there. I need to see that. I want to take that photo too”. These places become popular. They receive attention. People notice them. And then they choose them for their weddings or holidays.

And then, when they go there, they’re taking photos, they’re sharing those beautiful photos, they receive more attention and more people make those decisions. And therefore the place remains or becomes more popular. And so photographers feed and perpetuate that cycle by showcasing photos from these desirable wedding locations.

What To Consider When Sharing Images

• Cultural Appropriation
  If there are backdrops or props, is it culturally appropriate how they’re being represented?
  
• Image Manipulation and Retouching
  Has anything been photoshopped out of an image and is it being photoshopped out because it’s considered “unpleasant”? When we create an image that is not an accurate portrayal of a place we’re sending a signal about what that place actually looks like or what people can expect when they’re visiting. How will they feel when that’s not what they encounter on their wedding day?
  
• Give Additional Context
  Use captions, do Instagram stories or reels or whatever, where you pull back the curtain and provide additional information about these places where you’re shooting, and about the context of your presence in a place. Those are all opportunities for education. When we can take a photo and provide more information about what’s going on, that is always a good thing to do. That doesn’t mean everybody’s going to take that information in, but you’ve at least provided it.

Are the people or places that are appearing in these photos being appropriated in any way?

Sustainable Practices for Destination Wedding Photographers

Traveling to a destination not only has a heavy eco-footprint, but you’re taking away work from a local person, who would be infusing that money back into the local economy.

Can you expand your geographical reach without flying?

Is it possible to travel more extensively via another form of transport – train, car, etc. – to expand geographical reach? Could you shoot several events in a single foreign destination (e.g. six weeks w/10 weddings in Italy)? Is there a way to expand your geographical reach in a place where you are the local expert? From a customer service standpoint, there is certainly more value in working with somebody who’s considered a local expert.

Stay longer & build a local network

If you can collaborate and work in some way with other local people, that will automatically infuse more money back into the local economy. The aim is to keep as much money in a destination as possible, hiring local people, staying at local accommodations, and staying longer. Those things are all indicators of a more sustainable business approach.

Put yourself in the shoes of people who live there

When we refer to a place as a “destination” it really separates a place, “a home”, from a place that people are visiting. I would love to see more people ask themselves, what would I want people to know if they were moving through my home? How would I want people to act if they were visiting the place that I grew up and where I practice my cultural traditions? How do I want people to treat the places that I love? And those are the same questions that local residents have when we travel to them, when we’re holding photo shoots and weddings in these places. They’re not something to be consumed. So I would encourage anybody who’s going to any place, whether that is as a casual traveler or a photographer or a retreat participant or whatever the case might be, is to build in time so that you are learning about the place and not just the backdrop. So that you are aware of the historical and cultural context that makes that place unique and special and not just looking at it and the things that you see in that place, the artifacts, as simply pretty things that might just appear in the background.

Even just taking that time to reflect on the place as a place and not as a destination is a powerful way to be traveling generally more mindfully, whether you’re there as a traveler or building your portfolio.

• Take the time to learn about a place – the history, culture, social customs, etc.
• Support it on a local level – buy from local makers, eat at local places, stay at locally owned accommodations
• Is there a way to appropriately give back by donating a portion of the profits to a locally run organization?
• Ask yourself: If I’m running my company ethically, am I actually the right person for this job?

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Rise Travel Institute – Decolonizing Travel E-Book
• Book: Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World by Anu Taranath 

About JoAnna