Introduction - Tourism and Visual Culture: Theories and Concepts - page 4

with the social role of art' (Wells, 2003, p. 15)
and Benjamin's particular preoccupation with
'the nature of photography as a creative act'
and the social consequences of 'the mass repro-
ducibility of images' (Wells, 2003, p. 15). It can
be seen that in a style increasingly characteristic
of tourism studies, a variety of disciplines and
theoretical standpoints are brought to bear on
this collection of essays themed around tourism
and visuality.

ler, many of Hopper's paintings refl ect his travel
experiences by depicting travel aspects such
as transport, hotels and scenic landscapes. In
discussing selected paintings, Costa highlights
the link between painting and photography,
between the painter's gaze and that of the
photographer. Recognition of the canvas/pho-
tograph link causes Costa to pose and explore
an interesting question, how far can the tourist
gaze be rendered in paint?
The painted image moves to the printed
image in Kevin James's chapter on late 19th-
century guidebooks and travelogues. James
highlights the role of such artefacts in prefi gur-
ing the Irish landscape for promotion to the
domestic tourist market in Great Britain. James
discusses how visual images and text were spe-
cifi cally employed to enable parallels to be
drawn between Ireland and more fashionable
resorts of the time such as Germany, Norway
and Switzerland. Visual imagery was further
used to make comparative links between Ire-
land and other destinations within the UK, e.g.
the English Lake District, Wales and the Scottish
Highlands. Through his discussion, James illus-
trates how efforts to promote Ireland in this way
were infl uenced by the political and economic
imperatives of the day. Following on from the
contemplation of landscape, Jana Paschen
presents a fascinating, multi-layered reading of
place through her examination of Uluru, a
sacred Aboriginal site located in Central Austra-
lia. Through interviews and observation, Pas-
chen reveals how the tourists she encountered
learnt to appreciate other ways of seeing and
understanding the landscape. In so doing, the
seeming universality of Western knowledge pro-
duction is challenged by the older, mythical
approach to knowledge production of Aborigi-
nal culture.
A focus on landscape moves to the contem-
plation of the cityscape with Sergej Stoetzer's
chapter, which offers a semantic analysis of the
gaze to illustrate the way in which spaces -
specifi cally urban and tourist spaces - are visu-
ally reproduced. Photographs taken as the basis
for photoelicitation interviews enabled research
participants to build digital representations of
their favourite parts of the city. In taking their
photographs, the participants moved through
various 'identity' phases from resident to tourist
and back again. Overall, Stoetzer illustrates how

Structure of the Topic

Taking a cue from Susan Sontag who said
'Photographs, which cannot themselves explain
anything, are inexhaustible invitations to deduc-
tion, speculation, and fantasy' (1977, p. 23).
This topic explores, in various ways, the rela-
tionship between tourism and visuality. In so
doing, the 17 chapters contribute to what has
become a growing interest and body of knowl-
edge defi ning the contours of the visual culture
of tourism.
Kathleen Baker for example discusses
how the changing nature of the gaze has affected
the evolution and use of the hill stations of India.
Created during the British colonial era, the hill
stations not only offered a refuge from the heat
of the summer they also provided a temporary
refuge from the Other; a refuge that was essen-
tially English in both character and form. After
close on 60 years of independence, Baker
shows how the gaze of a different type of visitor
continues to infl uence and mould the hill station
experience.
The undercurrent of nostalgia in Baker's
chapter leads us into the chapter by Roberta
Bartoletti, which offers a fascinating explora-
tion of what she refers to as 'memory tourism',
a form of tourism arising out of the commodifi -
cation of nostalgia. Drawing upon the analysis
of visual data and literary text and the fi ndings
from observational research undertaken at sites
in Switzerland and former East Germany, Bar-
toletti sets out the social and cultural context
supporting the emergence of this form of tour-
ism. Memories of travel are also explored by
Teresa Costa, who examines the travel-related
narrative within the work of the American
painter Edward Hopper. An enthusiastic travel-