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ABSTRACT
Chalfen, Richard M., " P h o t o g r a p h y ' s Role in Tourism: Some
Unexplored Relationships," Annals of Tourism Research, October/December 1979, VI(4):435-447. While photography is one of the most
common attributes of tourist behavior, its role in tourism has never been
studied. Tourist photography is understood as both photographs made by
tourists and photographs made available to tourists by members of the
host community. This paper draws attention to three unexamined topics:
the relationship between certain tourist types and patterns of
photographic behavior a n d / o r content of photographs; the culturally
variable standards of appropriate subject matter and camera use in
different parts of the world; and the variety of responses exhibited by host
communities to being photographed. Examples are given of host
sensitivities and camera related disturbances. A trend is noticed in which
host communities specify which images are appropriate and inappropriate
for tourist photography. Keywords: photography, travel, tourist behavior,
Richard Chelfan is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Temple University. Professor Chalfen received his
Ph.D. from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania. His primary research interests include the
study of culture and communication, visual anthropology, and the sociology of non-professional photography
and filmmaking.
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RESUME
Chalfen, Richard M., "Le Rble de la photographie dans le tourisme:
Quelques Rapports inexptor~s," Annals o f Tourism Research, octobre/
decembre 1979, VI(4):435-447. Quoique la photographie est un des
attributs les plus communs du comportement touristique, on n ' a jamais
&udie son rble dans le tourisme. La photographie touristique se d6fine
sous un double aspect: les photographies que font les touristes et celles
que les membres de la communaut6 r6cepteur met-tent ~t la disposition des
touristes. Le pr6sent article attire l'attention sur trois sujets inexamin6s
jusqu'au pr6sent: le rapport entre certains genres de touristes et des types
de comportement photographique ou de contenu des photographies; les
normes, variables selon la culture, pour d6terminer l'admissibilit6 de
certains sujets et de certaines modes d'emploi de l'appareil duns
diff6rentes parties du monde, et la vari6t6 de r6actions de la communaut6
r6cepteur au fait d'etre prise en photo. On donne des exemples des
sensibilit6s locales et des perturbations dhes ~t la photographie. On fait
remarquer la tendance des communaut6s r6cepteurs h indiquer queUes
images sont admises et lesquelles sont real h propos pour la photographie
touristique, Mots Clef: photographie, voyages, comportement touristique,
interaction, sensitivit6 d'image, authenticit6, culture.
INTRODUCTION
A camera is a tourist's primary "identity b a d g e . " Susan Sontag has noted:
"photography develops in tandem with one of the most characteristic of modern
activities: tourism...It seems positively unnatural to travel for pleasure without taking
a camera along...Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs...Most
tourists feel compelled to put a camera between themselves and whatever is
remarkable they encounter" (1977:9-10). One Kodak advertisement summarizes this
phenomenon quite well: " R a r e is the traveller who doesn't take a camera along. The
need seems basic."
The purpose of this essay is to explore photograhpy's role in tourism. When
tourism and photography are understood as kinds of social interaction, several
unexamined hypotheses pertaining to the tourist-host relationship are suggested.
Almost nothing has been said of what tourists do with cameras beyond the anecdotal
"travel note." Oblique reference to tourist photography is found on the dust covers of
two recently published books on tourism. In the case of Valene Smith's book, Hosts
and Guests (1977), a picture appears of what is presumed to be a tourist using a motion
picture camera. On the cover of Turner and Ash's The Golden Hordes (1976) an image
of sunbathers, framed in the familiar color-slide cardboard mounting, is displayed.
However neither work examines the tourist as photographer beyond a few brief
references.
This paper outlines three kinds of relationships thought to be crucial to an
appreciation and understanding of the role of photography in tourism: (1) the
relationship between certain tourist types and (a) types of photographic behavior
and/or (b) content of photographs; (2) the variable definition of normative behavior
surrounding taking photographs in tourist sites; and (3) the variety of reactions
exhibited by host community residents to being photographed.
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seven tourist types: (1) explorer, (2) elite, (3) off-beat, (4) unusual, (5) incipient mass,
(6) mass, and (7) charter. Again, each type of tourist is characterized by a particular
social relationship to the host community, varying in degree of adaptation to local
norms. For instance, at one extreme, the " e x p l o r e r " is said to fully accept local norms
whereas the " m a s s tourist" expects Western amenities and the "charter tourist"
demands Western amenities (1977:9).
Hypothetically, each tourist type may be characterized by taking different kinds of
photographs which, in turn, "illustrate" alternative host-tourist relationships. One
example of a potential correlation between tourist type and photographs is hinted at
when Nelson Graburn discusses " t h e tourism of the timid"--tourists who travel
surrounded by the comforts of their own culture and lifestyle. "Though undoubtedly
enchanted by the view of God's handiwork through the pane of the airconditioned bus
or the porthole, they worship "plumbing that works" and " s a f e " water and food.
The connection with the unfamiliar is likely to be purely visual and, filtered through
sunglasses and a camera viewfinder" (1977:31).
In this context, much depends on what type of tourist expects from his/her
experience. The notion of expectation is suggested when Smith describes the nature of
tourism in Kotzebue, Alaska, and interest in seeing the Midnight Sun. "After the
dance performance finished at 9:00 P.M., the increased number of tourists strolled the
beachline, at the very hour when hunters returned and butchering commenced.
Tourist expectations were suddenly met - these were the things they came to see, and
the pictures they wanted, of Eskimo doing 'Eskimo t h i n g s " ' (1977:59).
Regarding the motivations of tourist photographers, it is uncertain how much they
rely on their cameras to document o r " prove" that they have experienced some degree
of authentic native life. MacCannell concludes that "Touristic consciousness is
motivated by its desire for authentic experiences" (1973:597) and that "Sightseers are
motivated by a desire to see life as it is really lived, even to get in with the natives..."
(1973:592). Significantly many of the "back region" examples MacCannell offers of
the " s t a g e d authenticity" are ones that allow and even prescribe photographic
recording.
However, it is equally uncertain how specific examples of " s t a g e d native
realities" satisfy tourists' needs. Boorstin feels that the unending production of
"pseudo-events" is well appreciated:
And the tourist demands more and more pseudo-events. The most popular
of these must be easily photographed (plenty of daylight) and
inoffensive--suitable for family viewing. By the mirror-effect law of
pseudo-events, they tend to become bland and unsurprising reproductions
of what the image-flooded tourist knew was there all the time. The
tourist's appetite for strangeness thus seems best satisfied when the
pictures in his own mind are verified in some far country (1961:108-109).
Edmund Carpenter appears to agree with Boorstin's position with regard to the
tourist's search for pre-determined images:
Older people still experience the need to translate images into observed
reality. When they travel, they want to see the Eiffel Tower on Grand
Canyon exactly as they saw them first on posters. An American
tourist..does more than see the Eiffel Tower. He photographs it exactly as
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It is undoubtedly the case that instances of similar violations have occurred with
varying degrees of negative sanctions and explicit punishments for tourist
photographers.
Native Sensitivities and Host Community Reactions
Image Sensitivity
...the many Eskimo passengers aboard airplanes that included tour
parties overheard the departing visitors brag about the "pictures I got"
and interpreting the remarks as ridicule, which cuts deep into native
ethos. In response. Eskimo women began to refuse would-be tourist
photographers, then erected barricades to shield their work from tourist
eyes...(Smith 1977:59).
It is clear that not all people in the world feel the same way about either being
photographed or seeing themselves in photographs. Tourists may assume that every
person they see or every place and thing they encounter are "open game." People who
avoid outsiders' cameras may do so for different reasons. In one report from
Guatemala:
In remote areas, people will often flee if a tourist's camera is aimed at
them. Mothers will hide their children behind billowing skirts or cover
their heads with shawls and chivy them out of sight like hens herding
chickens from a hawk. Often men will make the sign of the cross and shout
imprecations as they scurry out of sight" (Neal, 1975).
Another instance of a camera related disturbance in Turkey:
...I found that a camera can be a blasphemous assault against the
sensibilities of a culture. In Turkey, for example, signs clearly spell out the
ban on photographing women (a Moslem proscription against graven
images). But how can one pass these exotic phantoms, bodies fully clothed
and heads covered, without sneaking at least one shot? .... I waited at what
I thought was a respectful distance to snap a brilliantly clad women in a
purdah, but it turned out the distance was still not great enough. The
lady-in-focus heard the click and began to shriek. Soon people from all
directions converged on the scene, clamoring in Turkish. The indignant
woman pointed at me. As I rapidly retreated through a narrow
passageway I felt like a rustler being pursued by a posse. Luckily I finally
lost the thumping feet behind me. It was a truly great shot, but I paid for
it in panic and a near heart attack. In the future, I decided I'd be more
deferential (Gersten 1977).
From Peru:
Every culture varies in the degree to which it is camera shy. In Peru, the
Indian women run away when you aim the camera at them...No one knows
what the tourist with the camera will do with one's image. Maybe when he
gets back home, he will laugh at it, use it for darts, or as a stimulus for
bizarre sexual experiments" (Milgram 1977:54).
And from Indochina:
Once while i was taking pictures of a Chinese shopkeeper and his wife in
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RICHARD M. CHALFEN
festival occasions, village elders would not like pictures of their daughters
dancing shown in the public. Nice girls do not dance in public (Collier
1967:15).
Image Accommodation
It would seem fruitful to examine arrangements developed by host communities to
accommodate increased demands for photographic images. Exploration is needed of
alternative patterns of " i m a g e accommodation" or " i m a g e adaptation" that have
seemingly satisfied both hosts and camera-using guests. The first two potential types
of restriction represent the unlikely extremes of either complete restriction or complete
camera freedom. A host community can " s a y , " in either formal or informal manner,
"Absolutely No Photography Allowed" or "Photograph Anything". It appears that
neither extreme occurs in significant frequency. However, a rare instance of extreme
restriction comes from Staphurst, the Netherlands. Jules Farber reported that " a
tourist clicking in this village is asking for trouble. In Staphurst, picture-taking is
against the law, and a sign in front of the City Hall makes this clear in four
languages--Dutch, German, English and French" (1966). In other instances, a country
may require purchase of camera permits, licenses or other forms of permission. In
1960, it was reported that Ethiopia was following this pattern, luring tourists to use
" t h e wonderland route to Africa. Yet once there, the tourists make dinner-table
conversation of the way police officers discourage taking pictures of the
wonderland...There is no law against picture-taking. It is just that the Ethiopians feel
that foreigners take pictures of us so they can give friends a laugh back h o m e " (Walz
1960:6).
It appears that most toul;ist communities or sites at least implicitly encourage
some form of photography. In most instances, for the tourist without a camera, or with
a broken camera, local entrepreneurs will provide and sell a variety of professionally
produced pictures. Common examples are postcards and travel brochures. They
provide outsiders with preferred views of the host setting. In one interesting example
involving brochures:
Egypt, for instance, has produced a crop of stories about tourists arrested
for photographing Cairo bridges which are on all the tourist postcards.
Again, they are sensitive about possible attacks on the Aswan Dam...
Tourists would be asked to leave their cameras behind them in their hotels
when visiting this attraction, despite the fact that the lobbies were filled
with brochures bursting with pictures of the dam (Turner and Ash,
1976:241).
Other examples of native approved imagery may include sets of 35mm slides,
view-master slides, sets of white-boarded color photographs, 8ram or Super-Store
films, and even photographs printed on plates, cups, dinner placemats, T-shirts and
the like. Moreover, host communities may help the tourist capture " p r e f e r r e d views"
with original photography. For instance, in France road signs indicate locations of " l a
belle vue" or "un vue unique" which specify a place to stop your car, and instructions
in three langauges to ensure proper exposure. Similar examples are also found at
explicitly picturesque canyons in the Southwestern United States.
Carl Mydans mentions another way of assisting tourist photographers. Writing an
advice article for the Time-Life series on photography, he relates an example of literal
ANNALS OF TOURISM RESEARCH Oct/Dec '79
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445
culture are developed for tourist consumption. Just as some art historians have studied
the deliberate transformation of indigenous art into hybrid forms that satisfy values,
motives, perceptions and aesthetics of Western art markets, one may now be seeing
manipulation and re-creation of native life for the sake of tourists' photographic
recreation. [] []
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bastian, Lois Brunner
1974 Instant Pictures, Instant Response. New York Times June 23.
Boorstin, Daniel
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Cohen, Erik
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MacCannell, Dean
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Submitted November 16, 1978
Revision submitted February 28, 1979
Accepted April 11, 1979
Refereed anonymously
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