A lervly hike through the mountains
The Guardian reports that Princess Ivanka is being accused of hypocrisy for posting vacation snaps full of nature.
Ivanka Trump shared a series of pictures on social media over the weekend of herself, husband Jared Kushner and their children availing themselves of the natural wonders of Wyoming.
“Love. Wonder. Wander. Repeat,” the president’s daughter and adviser captioned in one photo, in front of a painterly backdrop.
The response to the photos, on the other hand, was not quite as generous of spirit, as various social media users piled on with a mix of attacks on her father’s poor environmental record in office and other policies.
In another photo posted to Twitter, Ivanka showed a lovely hike through the mountains. “Where the wild things are…” she captioned it, referencing the book about a spoiled child who lives in a fantasy land.
Critics on Twitter and Instagram were quick to point out the hypocrisy at work, as just last week her father’s administration moved to weaken protections for endangered animals. Ivanka is, after all, a top White House adviser to the president.
Hypocrisy, yes, but there’s another thing.
What dominates that photo? Not the landscape, but the dainty princess occupying the middle of it. She captioned it “Where the wild things are…” but it’s not really about the wild things, is it, it’s how pretty she looks in amongst them. That’s fine for family snaps but she’s a part of the government, an illegal part of a corrupt law-breaking government, and she’s doing what she can to manipulate us.
She should go to Flint to pose for photos drinking the water.
She looks remarkably made up for a hike in the mountains.
I get a lot of grief from people because so few of my photos have people in them; but I like the pictures of nature without people in it, so I’m sticking too it. That does look like a lovely spot. I hope she walked really close to those thistles so they could tell her personally what they think of her father’s policies.
And seriously, what What a Maroon said. If you’re going for a hike dressed like that, and you look like that for the pictures, you aren’t doing any serious hiking. You’re strolling along paths, perhaps being trucked from place to place in an air conditioned vehicle.
My pictures, when I am in them, show me with hiking boots, rugged pants, and a beat up old t-shirt. And a hat, an essential piece of equipment for a white person out in nature. She’s much paler than I am, and I burn easily. I hope we get to see her sunburned, tick-ridden, flushed pictures, where she’s covered with cockleburs, sand burs, and goldenrod pollen.
She is wearing hiking boots. But it looks like her trousers are either too short or tucked into the boots. An excellent place to trap ticks.
Actually, there’s more to this than might first meet the eye, I am pretty sure that is a helicopter in the far background and not a speck of the usual on my laptop screen. And Ivanka’s right leg, extended out to her right front, has the abovementioned designer hiking boot on the end of it that is holding down the head of a rattlesnake, tell-tale evidence of the thrashing around of which can just be seen. She is clearly in that serene but strong stance to prevent that venomous reptile from biting the photographer. Which is both thoughtful and courageous. No, I take that back. Inspiring is the word I’m after.
Could be that she has been standing that way ever since she was lowered by the Marine guard detail out of the helicopter. But does she look bored? Not a bit.
She is an inspiration, and an example to us all.
Any chance that plant in the foreground is a triffid that is about to strike moments after this photo was taken?
No? A thistle? How… disappointing.
“Damn unt blasten!” exclaimed Unterfuhrer Trumpf, “Ze von Trapps haff eluded mein search again.”
Yeah, it’s a very “instagram influencer” type of photo, especially since she’s sharing it herself. Not what you’d expect to see from a serious government official.
and I think that there is a baseball cap in her left hand. Hadda come off for the picture, off course.
iknklast @2,
I’m pretty similar, at least when it comes to vacation photos.
I don’t begrudge people one or two shots of them as a couple or group in front of, e.g., the Eiffel Tower, as a memento of who you took the trip with and what you looked like then. But is it really necessary to do that for every photo and every location? “Here’s us in front of the Eiffel Tower. Here’s us in front of the Louvre. Here’s us in front of the Arc de Triomphe. Here’s us at Versailles. Now, on to the London photos…..” I can’t see it as anything other than vanity, implying that you and your partner are much more interesting to look at than that actual scenery/building/city. When I travel solo, people at tourist attractions often offer to take photos for me so I can be in them, and they’re often surprised when I say “nah, I’m good. I already know what I look like!”
And don’t get me started on the folks who insist on doing separate shots of every possible permutation of their travel group, like they’re a wedding photographer. “This is Alice in front of the Louvre. This is Bob in front of the Louvre. This is Carol in front of the Louvre. Now here’s Alice and Bob in front of the Louvre….” These folks are especially irritating, because I’m just hoping to get a clear frame for one or two quick shots, and they’re staging an entire photo shoot. I’m relieved when they finally have exhausted every configuration except the inevitable “let’s get one of ALL of us!” and Ted starts looking hopefully around for someone (i.e. me) to take that shot for them.
I live a short walk from the most familiar view of Seattle, so I get to see a LOT of people dutifully taking photos of Self In Front Of Familiar View. Most people do also actually look at the view, but still…
FWIW, many people prefer to take only it mostly pictures with themselves and their friends when traveling, and they advise others to do similarly. It’s easy to buy a professional photograph of the Eiffel Tower, but you can’t easily buy a picture of Aunt Maggie by the Eiffel Tower. For them, photographs document the trip taken by people. Personally, I combine the personal documentary with a vain attempt at being an artsy photographer, but I understand the point.
I guess. I kind of see the point when I try hard enough…
OB: On the other hand, you might just consider a move to Wyoming, where you might get a better view of the Rockies. Then again, one of America’s best male songwriters bases himself near Seattle: as witness this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndk1qALRBMA
Sackbut,
Yeah, I get it — I can buy a photo taken by a professional photographer, on a good day with good weather and good light, retouched and otherwise manipulated to look beautiful…. which looks nothing like what *I* saw on the day I was there. I *want* my travel photos to have imperfections that remind me of what I saw and experienced.
And yes, of course, other people just want to see themselves and their partner/friends/family. Everybody likes what they like, people have a right to their tastes, blah blah blah. I’m just airing my grievances and announcing my judgment of them as vain annoying people. (Which includes some people I otherwise like.) I’m sure they likewise judge me as grouchy and antisocial. Which means we’re both correct.
Screechy, I hate to think how many tourist photos I’m in. Several times every day I walk under a Memorial arch. Invariably a young (usually asian )tourist standing beside me suddenly strikes a dramatic/silly/cute pose while their partner or family member snaps away. If only I could collect royalties. Personally I prefer photos of the places I’ve been to and only reluctantly climb into frame when harassed by my better half.
I recently stayed in a hotel right by the river at London Bridge. The current fashion seems to be for people to climb up onto the railings (you know, the ones that are there to stop you falling in the river) and balance there precariously while they have their photographs taken, presumably so they just have the backdrop of the bridge and not, like, all the stuff that is actually there at ground level.
Sadly, nobody fell in while I was there, but there were more than a few near misses.
I’m with camp take-pictures-of-stuff-not-people, but I’m a known misanthrope.
I generally don’t take pictures of what all the other tourists are taking unless I can think of something snarky to say (I took a picture of the Checkpoint Charlie guy just to point out that he didn’t crack a smile) or it’s an especially striking view. Mostly I go for small details (the Holy Family in Nuremberg with Joseph seemingly heading a soccer ball). Also, no one in my immediate family wants their picture taken, so usually it’s just strangers in my shots.
Sackbut, a lot of the pictures I take are not the sort of things that are on postcards. I suppose I could buy a postcard of the Des Moines Botanical Garden, but it would have little in common with the view I want. I’m lucky a lot of times when I go to truly remote places, because people don’t walk into my pictures or take a thousand shots of them in front of whatever I’m shooting, but when I go to places where there are other people, I find that they are more than willing to walk in front of your camera just as you click the shutter it took you a few minutes to get set up just perfectly. Standing back and waiting, or finding a way around that doesn’t get in the picture is a thing of the past.
But even that thing of oh, I want a picture of Aunt Ethel by the Eiffel Tower? Okay, but why 27 pictures of Aunt Ethel by the Eiffel Tower? I do take pictures with my husband in them, and sometimes pictures with my husband and dog in them. But most of my pictures do not have people, and my photography instructor simply saw no reason to take a picture without people in it, and that’s what I was talking about…okay, so I can buy a postcard of some place, so I should take pictures with people? In this day of digital cameras, you can do both at no additional cost. And my best pictures are usually those without people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249QCDt22Zk
“When I was your age we had this stuff called ‘film’ you would stick in a camera before you took a shot,
And then you had to wait like a month until you could tell what pictures you’d got,
You would hand the film to a guy in a parking lot who lived in a booth,
Yeah it’s the truth.”
Although over here it was what we used to call a ‘chemist’ (drug store) rather than a parking lot.
I take few pictures with people. (Indeed, I take few photographs; see below. My proportion with people might be half.) I dislike people hogging the view or doing dangerous stunts for the sake of a clever photo, with or without people. I understand, though, the points made about wanting to document the people of a trip, and I’m less inclined to judge such “people focused” photographers harshly.
Heck, there’s a school of thought that looks down on taking photographs, period, saying that one should experience a trip rather than try to record it. I keep that advice in mind as well, and I try not to beat myself up for failing to photograph something, saying that I experienced it directly, that’s a good thing. I do find it weird how some people experience their trip almost entirely behind a camera lens, but they’re having fun, too.
Rob,
My office is in a semi-touristy area, so it’s not unusual for tourists to be lining up photos when I’m walking somewhere to lunch. I try to be courteous and not walk into the foreground of somebody’s shot, but if the photographer is on one edge of the sidewalk, the subject(s) on the other, so there’s no way to go around, then they get about five seconds to line up the damn thing and take it before I’m plowing through.
Rob @ 16 – heh – this one time the three of us who made up the elephant crew were out walking one or perhaps two of them to the big then-wildish area where they could pull up some long grass and otherwise frolic, and Ken (the other keeper was Ellen) suddenly observed “Have you ever thought how many strangers have pictures of you in their collections?” We all laughed.
I occasionally take pictures with people in them, in notable places or situations. But for the most part, I don’t really want people in the way spoiling the view. And I’m with #teamcurmudgeon being put out by people doing goofy contortions in lifethreatening situations to get the perfect selfie.
On the other hand, @WaM’s #18 soccer ball comment reminds me of a photo I recently took in a church in Kazan that for all the world looked like Jesus as surfer dude with an apostle kneeling before him in recognition of His Awesome Skillz.
Hahahahahahaha is it on FB?
Still wading through 6000 photos (and took a break for a camping/trainwatching trip, which resulted in yet more), but I’ll make a priority for Surfer Dude to be next
Is it annoying and touristy to take pictures of one’s dog in front of views and landmarks? Asking for a friend…
No, that’s entirely different. ENTIRELY.
Whew, that’s a relief. The “Frodo Puggins was here” series remains safe.
It’s time for more Cooper pictures.