I really don't like other people

I know that sounds bad. If that were completely true, I would be a misanthrope. (I wanted to throw that word out there because I spent some effort finding it.)

There are a lot of people I do like—my friends, family (most of the time), the people I work with and see at work—that makes dozens, maybe hundred(s) of people who don't drive me crazy (or who I am willing to tolerate even when they do). I am willing to consider that there are people out there who I don't know, but might meet in future, that I will also like. So no, I do not hate all humankind.

However, I do hate people en masse. In crowds. In airplanes and train carriages and department stores with sales. And most of all, in my pictures!*

My entire objective in travel photography is to take pictures of sights populated with absolutely no extraneous people. No crowds massing around a fountain or heads bobbing in front of a cathedral or, worst of all, bystanders in a garden scene.** I know it's unnatural, but I prefer my pictures to look like postcards.

I think I wouldn't mind having people in my photos if people weren't generally so unattractive. Really, there are some amazing ugly people walking around in the world. Especially in foreign countries. Especially in tourist locations.*** Or in London, generally.

Let me fine tune this a little more. I have forced myself to tolerate people, even crowds, in the background of my photos. I really have no control over that, although I have minimized it by traveling when others choose not to, e.g. during the foot and mouth scare in England (early summer 2001), right after 9/11 (autumn 2001), at the peak of the unfavorable pound/dollar exchange rate (2006 & 2007) and during a major recession when nobody can afford to travel despite a vastly improved exchange rate (right now).

Sometimes, dare I say, a few people in the distant background even add to the ambience of a picture. I am thinking fondly of a favorite picture from Barnsley House and Garden in 2001, when the garden was still owned by the Rosemary Verey family and was open to the public, where the other visitors strolling about gave the impression of a garden party.

No, it's the odd person or pair who walks right into the middle of your carefully composed shot just at the moment everyone else has cleared away, who makes me want to tear out my hair by the roots. At Piccadilly Circus the other day, a man was just standing idly in front of my mother while she was clearly pointing the camera in my direction. Today, while I was taking a picture at Sally Lunn's (and clearing that space was a task, everyone wanted to go in to eat), a bald man persisted in standing in front of the otherwise deserted shop window, studying the menu, if you can imagine that! The absolute nerve of him!

You can, if you would like, have a look at my pictures from Bath today. There aren't too many, not so much because of the people around, but because I have been to Bath so many times I have less of a compulsion to take pictures here.

While I am confessing my anti-social tendencies, I will also admit that I like riding in first class on the train because, in addition to the nicer seats and free refreshments, there are very few people and no children in the first class carriages. Much calmer and quieter! And, although I enjoyed sitting with my laptop in the pub this afternoon, I was happy to leave in the evening when it became crowded and noisy, and retreat to our peaceful B&B. I am, I confess, an unapologetic introvert!****


To read today's running post, click here.


*Excluding people who I choose to put in my pictures.

**My temper tantrum while trying to photograph the Queen's Rose Garden at Sudeley Castle in 2001 is legendary. Well, I remember it well. But I was patient and eventually I got some beautiful shots sans people!

***I know I'm not one to talk. On this trip I have been devoting all of 20 minutes to getting ready in the morning, have basically abandoned my hair altogether (although I did buy a curling iron at Boots today), and spend all my time in either an LL Bean Gortex or Polartec jacket, depending on the temperature. I'm sure no one's exactly excited to see me wandering through their view finders!

****I might add, I talk to tons of people every day at work. That probably also contributes to my joy in solitude.