Another Tragic Selfie Death & The Struggles Of InstaFame

A young 21yr old social media influencer has tragically lost her live this week after climbing a fence at Diamond Bay Reserve, in Vaucluse, Sydney. Sadly the British backpackers parents opened up about her struggle to instagram and instafame before her tragic death.

It’s tragic that we have lost another life in circumstances that could be avoided. On September 22, 2019 I published a blog titled Clifftop Stupidity in which I spoke about watching people climb fences and scale down the clifftops at Diamond Bay. The following day, covering the site again, I witnessed a visitor slip and fall onto the rock ledge below and luckily ONLY break both legs and pelvis. After the event, I personally lost the motivation to continue the documentary and ultimately needed a break.

I’ve long struggled with this documentary, and I still do everyday. The burden of the project really cuts deep and to have been in locations where a little boy has been hit by a car, a visitor falling to their death at SeaCliff Bridge and someone falling at Vaucluse has been tough. Most times when I head out to locations I just want to yell at people for being stupid. In other ways despite being a landscape photographer, I’ve not wanted to shoot landscape from time to time because I am over seeing people being stupid.

I have enough content to complete Vaucluse for sometime, but its the motivation to keep this documentary going I struggle with. So many locations, and some many wonderful people message us about locations and covering places. I need to once again fight the struggle for it despite 100% believing in it.

InstaFame began being about environmental destruction to the landscape, but it became more and more about lots of elements. We fight when we publish things photographers, Instagramers and visitors calling us hypocrites because we too shoot these places. The abuse, bullying and the like. InstaFame is about education, not shaming.