Tourism can lead to the landscape almost becoming a myth. In my many cases on post cards and in holiday brochures photography is used to make a place or landscape look appealing to the consumer. Stereotypes of popular tourist destinations are often created. For example when we think of anywhere we think of its popular tourist sights; Paris, the Eifel tower. Egypt; its pyramids, Jamaica; its golden beaches.
Martin Parr;
A brief description of Martins Parr's work as a whole, found on his website and written by Thomas Weski sums up really well Parr's aims and motives behind his work, especially the work i am about to present here, to do with Landscape, Tourism and Myth.
http://www.martinparr.com/introduction/
".... But at the same time they show us in a penetrating way how we live, how we present ourselves to others, and what we value."
"...Leisure, consumption and communication are the concepts that this British photographer has been researching for several decades now on his worldwide travels"
" Parr enables us to see things that have seemed familiar to us in a completely new way. In this way he creates his own image of society, which allows us to combine an analysis of the visible signs of globalisation with unusual visual experiences."
http://www.martinparr.com/2012/too-much-photography/
" One thing that has really changed in recent years is how the tourist uses photography. When I started shooting this topic many years ago, people would take one photo of themselves in front of the site and move on. Now mobile phone cameras and digital photography mean that the entire visit is documented. From the moment the tourist enters the site, everyone has to be photographed in front of every feature of note. Now it is almost impossible for me to shoot a photo where someone is NOT taking a picture or posing for one. So I am under the impression that no-one is really paying attention to the splendours and beauties of the site, as the urge to photograph is so overwhelming. The photographic record of the visit has almost destroyed the very notion of actually looking.
My theory is that the act of photographing ourselves at tourist sites becomes so important because it makes us feel reassured that we are a part of the recognisable world.
Martin Parr, April 2012 "
Martin Parr Small World;
These images show exactly what martin parr speaks about, how much consumerism is involved in tourism, how popular tourism is in this day in age and just how important photography has become as part of being a tourist.
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