Photography And Travel Brochures: The Circle Of Representation

Olivia H. Jenkins (2003) article, Photography and Travel Brochures: The Circle of Representation, discusses the method of which backpackers use photography as a means of mimicking the picturesque featured in travel brochures. The practice of taking pictures involves a process of "transcribing reality", however, the camera angles are deliberately poised to alter and shape the perception of the viewer (319). Within social media networks, travel pictures become part of a target relay when shared, in that they reproduce the affect of desire amidst users---each picture projects a pleasure which is mediated by conventional association. It becomes a thematically struggle of power where the backpacker may travel to a disadvantaged country to

Selfies, for instance, in tourist destination spots, seek to reproduce the lexicon of iconography, or building of images to represent popular conception. Certain tourist spaces are 'hermeneutically designed' by the tangible system of signs continually reworked for (self-)marketable or industry purposes. Such spaces are perpetually mobile, in the discursive practices of travel, creating a current of backpackers powering a closed circuitry, a "circle of representation"3 (308). Precisely, the tourist destination is mediated by a topography of signposts (advertisements, brochures, guidebooks) which circumferences a predetermined course of direction4. The very act of tourism involves a methodology of 'touring', as in draw to, or lead through an orientating experience. This orientation invokes a dialectic process of directing the subjective experience hermeneutically conforming to a mode of perception. Similar to a museum guide trying to draw in the attention of visiting children, the repetition of signs serves to reinforce a linear iteration of knowledge in synchronic fashion5. The guide wants the children to 'walk-in-tow', while historical narrative are explained in a series of tableau set pieces. Of course, children are rarely attentive to cultures that escape their

Driving there was scenic, if only for the beautiful architecture and shrubbery of multi-million dollar homes. Unfortunately, the ambiance drew curtain after we arrived at the canoe rental stand. Located in the park, which is not untrue, but deceiving so, as the canoe booth is located underneath the Old Mill Subway16. It was also an odd feeling, if wanting the bathroom, since there was none, one had to travel to the prestigious Old Mill Inn, hiking clothes and all. We forced the canoe, dragging it along a beaten path; down along a slop carved in the side of the bank by years of desperate paddlers wrestling it into the water. The effort was great. Since I did not want to plunge in the water... which I found later on was three inches deep. Heading off, we paddled into the Humber River. It derived of a main channel for upper echelon boats and yardage (all of which had slightly lewd, highly sexist names: Betty Booper, 'Notty' Seamen). The resonance of nature was palpable. Right up to the oily streaks streaming across the river, the graffiti (which normally I wouldn't mind if it didn't reference a particular body part), and half-naked Speedo-man sunbathing in his backyard looking out over the river. Needlessly to say, we spent the time taking photos concentrated on excluding the unpleasant elements of the natural world. This, in attempts to recreate a new attitude towards it: the heron, the marshland, the smell of