Wish you weren’t here: the photos that show an hour in the life of ‘quiet’ tourist hotspots

Travellers trek to remote destinations in search of Instagram-worthy photos. But at what cost? Photographer Natacha de Mahieu visualises the impact of overtourism

Natacha de Mahieu arrived at the edge of Obersee, a remote lake surrounded by lush green mountains and dramatic waterfalls in a south-east corner of Germany, in August 2021. It was chilly; rain pelted down. “It was not so fun to be there. It was so cold and everything was wet,” De Mahieu, 26, says from her home in Brussels, laughing.

Tourists came and took portraits of themselves against the view. De Mahieu noticed that, as soon as someone stepped in front of the camera, they would shed their layers in defiance of the cold to convey the image of a blissful summer. In front of the camera: T-shirts, floaty dresses. Behind it: swathes of padded jackets. It was Instagram versus reality.