Dodging the tourists in Provence

Social media has sent hordes of visitors to Provence and changed it for the worse, but David has come up with a potential solution

- DAVID CLAPP

Lens Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

Exposure 1/8 sec, f/16, ISO100

Provence, France. 19:34pm. 7 July 2017

Do you turn up to shoot popular UK landscapes and baulk at the increasing number of tripods? You haven't seen anything yet. I have been shooting in Provence since 2010 and the world is now a very different place from when my love affair with the purply blue began.

The last time I went I vowed it was my last, as the landscape was overrun with global influencers, geotagged photographers and coach-loads of tourists on a scale the likes of which you have never seen. Drones buzzed in the sky among the millions of oblivious bees, wedding shoots traipsed lighting rigs and dirty dresses through the soil, while cutsie girls clutched straw hats and twirled in daffodil-yellow dresses as machine-gun shutters clattered - it was a circus of narcissistic insanity.