The Beautiful Sight - Yours and Others Anthropology of Tourism Photography

Abstract

This paper explores the practice of tourism photography based on my fieldwork conducted around St Andrews Castle. Involving my personal experience of doing photography while migrating from country to country and demonstrating some of the experiences of tourists taking photos next to the castle, I reflect on tourism photography as a social practice through the aspects of ‘tourist gaze’, the power of controlling vision and knowledge, memory practice as well as ‘play’ and ‘performance’. What different meanings could individuals acquire about themselves while taking photos next to famous sights? To what ends do they use these materials?