Towards a New Gaze - Thoughts on Tourist Photography in India

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Volume Title

School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Bachelor's thesis

Date

2013

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Degree Programme in Photography
Valokuvataiteen koulutusohjelma

Language

en

Pages

48

Series

Abstract

Essee turistvalokuvauksen eettisistä ongelmista.

In my thesis I focus on a contemplative approach to tourist photography, rather than on problem solving or a process intent on finding answers. I try to apply postcolonial thinking on photography, and to use versatile written sources to create an essay that scratches the surface of a variety of different subjects ranging from history to sociology. I argue for the fact that tourist photography as we know it is a ritual that in itself has almost become more important than the resulting pictures, and that it is a way of creating photos that casts light over many troubling colonial remnants without anybody questioning this. Tourist photography is a way for the tourist to distance oneself from "the Other" and foreign culture, and to upkeep clichés and stereotypes. This argument is backed up by both statistical sources as well as by texts by writers such as John Urry and Susan Sontag. "Towards a New Gaze" is also an autobiographical text, into which I have woven in own experiences and memories, and linked them to my thoughts and ideas about power structures between the perceived "East" and "West". Finishing off the text is a section strictly about photography, with a postcolonial analysis of pictures by photographers Hans Silvester, Vera Brandner and Raghubir Singh.

Essä om de etiska problemen med turistfotografering.

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Supervisor

Hippeläinen, Tuovi

Keywords

intia, postkolonialismi, eettinen valokuvaus, turismi, tourism, postcolonialism, ethical photography, tourism, turism, postkolonialism, etisk fotografering, turism

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