Portraits

[boojum]

Irrespective of modernisation, Prague has been totally ruined by tourism. It is not joke when @Jonathan R said in the Prague thread that the best time to visit to avoid crowds of tourists is 1985.

The effects of mass over tourism and over development from domestic sources are different, and can only be managed by different civic approaches to development. Hong Kong and Bangkok receive the most visitors of any cities worldwide, but still have a lot of authentic elements, even if they have changed a lot (the first time I went to HK I stayed in the Kowloon Walled City, gone since 1994). But a majority of people in the city at any one time are still locals, and the local government and many companies and other real entities operate out of central HK or Bangkok. In Prague the combination of over tourism and a lack of preservation of use and purpose has made the ratio of tourists to locals, particularly in Prague 1, extremely skewed. Apart from Barcelona no city absorbs so many visitors in such a small area, visitors outnumbering residents more than 10:1. On a relatively recent occasion when I was there, the newly re-opened Hotel Grand Europa had staff who did not speak Czech and the food they sell as 'Czech' is made up and did not exist in the 1990s. Those, as a start, are reflective of astounding failures on the part of the city and Czech governments to manage the influx of tourists. The government has even moved out of the centre, and a vast majority of real businesses have moved out. Prague 1 is a sort of fake Disneyland for tourists.

The easiest, quickest solution is for the tourists to just stay home and mail the money. Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die. The tourist areas could severely restrict tourist access but they do not. It's about the money. I am not disagreeing with you, I am just saying that as long as folks depend upon tourists for their living this development will continue. Surely there must be some other interesting spots in the Czech Republic.

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

a friendly face portrait

Sony A7III camera
Voigtländer 28mm f1.5 Nokton Vintage Line Type I lens
Yokohama, Japan
August 2025​

 

[Rick Waldroup]

The missus, 62nd birthday

View attachment 4872552

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this was Marie Cosindas and her work with Polaroid color film. The colors in this photo are simply beautiful and when you add a very pretty lady- it makes for an excellent portrait.

 

[Rayt]

Irrespective of modernisation, Prague has been totally ruined by tourism. It is not a joke when @Jonathan R said in the Prague thread that the best time to visit to avoid crowds of tourists is 1985.

The effects of mass over tourism and over development from domestic sources are different, and can only be managed by different civic approaches to development. Hong Kong and Bangkok receive the most visitors of any cities worldwide, but still have a lot of authentic elements, even if they have changed a lot (the first time I went to HK I stayed in the Kowloon Walled City, gone since 1994). But a majority of people in the city at any one time are still locals, and the local government and many companies and other real entities operate out of central HK or Bangkok. In Prague the combination of over tourism and a lack of preservation of use and purpose has made the ratio of tourists to locals, particularly in Prague 1, extremely skewed. Apart from Barcelona, no large city absorbs so many visitors in such a small area, and visitors outnumber residents more than 10:1 in Prague 1 year round. Smaller cities like Dubrovnik, Rhodes, and Venice have it even worse, ratio-wise. On a relatively recent occasion when I was in Prague, the newly re-opened Hotel Grand Europa had staff who did not speak Czech and the food they sell as 'Czech' is made up and did not exist even in the 1990s let alone 'traditionally'. Those, as a start, are reflective of astounding failures on the part of the city and Czech governments to manage the influx of tourists. The government has even moved out of the centre, and a vast majority of real businesses have moved out. Prague 1 is a sort of fake Disneyland for tourists.

Hong Kong is a perfect example of what I was talking about. You have been there so you know how small it is and how even smaller the historical areas which would be Wan Chai to Central in the island wide and TST to Mongkok on the peninsula side. You can walk it in 30 minutes. HK’s population went from 4 million in the mid 70’s to 8+ millions in less than 40 years. Thats more than the population of all of Sweden at the time. Where are they going to build to support such massive change? Outside of those mentioned older areas there were little infrastructure. The reason for the influx was the need for manual labor to support out sourcing factories. This was the era before Korea and Taiwan made plastic toys, shirts, plastic flowers and transistor radios. I lived there for 30 years as an American when I managed Asia operations for my employer and have seen all these countries modernize since the 90’s. I traveled everywhere with Rolleiflex and Leica and a bag of film. HK is still my favorite city.