"Venice, Tourist #1" (June 2002)
Tourism raises many questions in my mind when I ponder the act and process of touring and its relationship to photography.
Watching people take photographs of historic buildings and landscapes produces mixed emotions in me. I laugh when I see touring groups and think of how everyone's photo album will be the same. Who will they show the album to? Their family and friends have the same images, but slightly to the left or a little to the right. So why take these photographs? I wonder do they photograph because they want to remember or think they should remember?
I am interested in the quantitative and qualitative effect's photography has on memory with regard to touring trips. How much and well does a tourist remember? How might the photograph influence memory? Does a tourist photograph as a means to own, or perhaps as a symbol to verify economic success? Is this similar to how the first photographers captured the West during the expansion of the United States in the 19th century? How does the lens mediate a traveler's experience?
The gates represent my existence as another tourist. They might also provide a fictitious backdrop for what the other tourists are photographing. Gates in themselves mediate the tourist's experience, limiting access and directing movement. Once-public spaces like the Forum or the Coliseum now channel and guide the tourists groups, implying a sanction on what is to be viewed and consequently remembered. It directs what is to be valued and photographed.
-h.d, 2002
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