Sightseer

Every day, tourists travel the globe for pleasure or in search of new experiences by doing, seeing, and photographing similar things. These activities collectively become the tourist experience, an activity of never completely arriving or connecting. Sightseer consists of various sized color photographs that document tourists, in moments when they are unaware of my presence, as they look through their viewfinders attempting to re-interpret views of their world.

In the body of work Sightseer, tourists become my subjects by photographing their body language and physical relationship to the camera. Finding the idiosyncrasies of tourists, I seek out these camera-wielding individuals that are obtaining proof of having arrived, filming destinations, and posing for the camera. Theorist Susan Sontag once stated, “ A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it—by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic by converting experience into an image, a souvenir.” My photographs reflect the superficial experience one has as a tourist, functioning as visual mementos at the expense of the people depicted. Through photography, I am able to possess souvenirs of tourists commodifying and consuming a destination as they look through their viewfinder, similar to Martin Parr’s photographic projects that take a critical look at mass tourism and reveal the absurdity of any given scenario. Photography has become the vehicle for me to document tourists when they have become vulnerable, predictable, awkward, and at times, humorous.

The act of photographing provides portable evidence of a sight. Meanwhile, providing record of a journey, by converting memories and experiences into souvenirs. The intention behind Sightseer is not to mock tourists, but rather depict a witty perspective of them, who at times forget how to experience the world and why they have arrived in the first place.