Distorted representation in visual tourism research

Unsettling the aesthetics of air travel through participatory tourist photography

“…These seemingly banal scenes and landscapes captured the ‘unforeseen, sudden, accidental or overwhelming’ (Jensen, 2016: 55) that, when collated side-by-side in the artwork (see Figures 2, 3 and 4), drew attention to are ‘the hectic and everyday that both affectually and sensuously influence tourism realities’. The variation in imagery and the inclusion of photographs that tourists were already ‘saving’ in their smartphones, might be thought of as a process in which the intentions behind preserving these photographs, as memories to look back on and reflect on at a later stage, are not necessarily driven purely by one sensation (the visual), but rather speak to a more nuanced expression of these fleeting or mundane tourism experiences.…”

“…Participatory methods that involve photography have been used in tourism to engage participants and invite reflection on a variety of perspectives of how the world is represented, documented and experienced. My intention in this section is not to necessarily pinpoint an exact formula that I used for this project, as it was from the outset, designed to be an emergent, collaborative, and creative process that fits within a long history of creative and ethnographic research in studying mobilities and tourism (Barry, 2017; Crang, 2010; Fuller and Harley, 2004; Jensen, 2016; Larsen, 2008). The project takes cues from practice-based methodology from creative arts research (e.g.…”

“…It is important to note how this project’s methodology takes note of tourism studies that have employed a variety of techniques and media to invite participants to be active in the creation of the research data. These include: photo elicitation, where images are used to spark discussion or invite reflection (Rakić and Chambers, 2012; Scarles, 2014); visual autoethnography (Jensen, 2016; Scarles, 2010; Scarles and Lester, 2013) in which participants are asked to take photographs during their journeys or on a particular topic; photographic essays or the creation of montages that involve students and/or participants collect and collate images on a particular topic or theme to later analyse and reflect on (Canosa et al, 2017; Grimwood et al, 2015); ‘volunteer-employed photography’ (VEP) in which tourists are invited to take photographs for the researcher of how they experience or perceive a particular place or theme (Balomenou and Garrod, 2014); or mobile methods that involve audio-visual technologies that document participants on the move or to gain visual perspectives of mobile encounters (Sheller, 2013). Increasingly researchers are embracing the messy and unexpected ethnographic encounters that affect and influence tourism experiences (Askins and Pain, 2011; Beard et al, 2016; Fujii, 2015).…”

“…The rise of mobile media and the proliferation of smartphones alongside increasing access to telecommunication infrastructures has drastically changed photographic practices by altering the availability, temporality and physicality of photographic technologies. As a result, tourism scholars are recognising a more mobile and embodied understanding of how tourist photography and visual practices are circulated and experienced (Crang, 2010; Jensen, 2016; Scarles, 2014).…”

“…Although the participatory aspect of the project fits within a growing collection of tourism research that embraces collaborative and creative methods (Barry, 2016; Byrne et al, 2016; Canosa et al, 2017; Fuller and Harley, 2004; Grimwood et al, 2015), the value lies in the often unexpected moments that emerge. While not all of the photographs contributed to the artwork were clear depictions, focused or well-framed accounts of the situation, these sometimes blurry or shaky, quickly taken photographs are ‘distorted representations’ that ‘give “voice” to particular embodied, material and frantic dimensions’ of tourism (Jensen, 2016: 557). In this regard, the artwork brings to the fore the value of these hasty holiday snaps that might not capture the entire situation, but seek to conjure alternative views and moments of tourism that are not necessarily as stylised and idyllic.…”