Sights & Sites

Beautiful Tourists Posted by Jessie Wender, newyorker.com This...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:15:27 -0400

Beautiful Tourists
Posted by Jessie Wender, newyorker.com

This week’s “Journeys” issue had me thinking about tourist destinations in the United States—and the photographers who’ve captured them while exploring the idea of sightseeing. Below, a selection of images.

American tourism photography in the New Yorker Journeys issue

(via Vintage Chrome Postcards)

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:49:16 -0500

(via Vintage Chrome Postcards)

aerial photography by Stephen Zirwes

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 13:10:52 -0400

aerial photography by Stephen Zirwes

Pictogram movie posters

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 13:07:13 -0400

Pictogram movie posters

OSAMU YOKONAMI

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:04:18 -0500

OSAMU YOKONAMI

KEVIN KUNSTADT

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:30:45 -0500

KEVIN KUNSTADT

las vegas neon (via dwarno66)Watch out for the really bizarre...

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:26:01 -0400

las vegas neon (via dwarno66)

Watch out for the really bizarre non-sequitur..

Kraftwerk - Neon LightsAll signs are better viewed with this...

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:24:46 -0400

Kraftwerk - Neon Lights

All signs are better viewed with this song playing in the background

sign flashing (via bellepants)Sort of a crappy movie, but I love...

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:24:02 -0400

sign flashing (via bellepants)

Sort of a crappy movie, but I love the varying intervals at which the neon is working.

Welcome To Las Vegas historic neon sign (via...

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:23:17 -0400

Welcome To Las Vegas historic neon sign (via grcvegas)

Inspiration for my recent project..

via...

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:41:16 -0400

via httpcolonforwardslashforwardslashwwwdotjenniferdanieldotcom.com

Michael Hughes re-integrates the iconography of the souvenir...

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:24:13 -0400

Michael Hughes re-integrates the iconography of the souvenir miniature into the landscape with his brilliantly framed photographs.

Q&A with NYT Travel Editor Stuart Emmrich

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:35:14 -0400

Q&A with NYT Travel Editor Stuart Emmrich

via www.culver.lib.in.usThanks Mary Jo.

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:53:40 -0400

via www.culver.lib.in.us

Thanks Mary Jo.

Valentine for Perfect StrangersThanks Joel. You made my day.

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:45:20 -0400

Valentine for Perfect Strangers

Thanks Joel. You made my day.

Please excuse my mess.

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:47:18 -0400

I’m in the process of customizing the CSS of this thing at the moment. Apologies for the visual disarray. It will all be fixed soon… I hope.

Love Messages From OverseasThanks Bethany. I’m…...

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:11:00 -0400

Love Messages From Overseas

Thanks Bethany. I’m… speechless.

"Several days later Murray asked me about a tourist attraction known as the most photographed barn in..."

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:53:34 -0400

“Several days later Murray asked me about a tourist attraction known as the most photographed barn in America. We drove twenty-two miles into the country around Farmington. There were meadows and apple orchards. White fences trailed through the rolling fields. Soon the signs started appearing. THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA. We counted five signs before we reached the site. There were fourty cars and a tour bus in the makeshift lot. We walked along a cowpath to the slightly eleveated spot set aside for viewing and photographing. All the people had cameras; some had tripods, telephoto lenses, filter kits. A man in a booth sold postcards and slides—citures of the barn taken from the elevated spot. We stood near a grove of trees and watched the photographers. Murray maintained a prolonged silence, occasionally scrawling some notes in a little book. “No one sees the barn,” he said finally. A long silence followed. “Once you’ve seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn.” He fell silent once more. People with cameras left the elevated site, replaced at once by others. “We’re not here to capture an image, we’re here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack? An accumultion of nameless energies.” There was an extended silence. The man in the booth sold postcards and slides. “Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We’ve agreed to be part of a collective perception. This literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism.” Another silence ensued. “They are taking pictures of taking pictures,” he said. He did not speak for a while. We listened to the incessant clicking of shutter release buttons, the rustling crank of levers that advanced the film. “What was the barn like before it was photographed?” he said. “What did it look like, how was it different from other barns, how was it similar to other barns? We can’t answer these questions because we’ve read the signs, seen the people snapping the pictures. We can’t get outside the aura. We’re part of the aura. We’re here, we’re now.” He seemed immensely pleased by this.”

- from Don DeLillo’s White Noise, via: Mary-Jo

John Schabel’s Passenger #2Photographer John...

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:48:01 -0400

John Schabel’s Passenger #2

Photographer John Schabel’s Passenger series captures people through airplane windows, taken from the tarmac. A reversal of what we normally expect as passengers looking outward, in transition between places.

"There has continued to be massive growth of international tourist flows… This..."

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:55:49 -0400

“There has continued to be massive growth of international tourist flows… This internationalization of tourism means that we cannot explain tourist patterns in any particular society without analyzing developments taking place in most other countries. The internationalization of tourism especially in Europe means that every tourist site can be compared with those located abroad (especially via the internet). So when people visit somewhere in their own country they are in effect choosing not to visit a site abroad. The internationalization of tourism means that all potential objects of the tourist gaze can be located on a scale, and can be compared with each other, often now more or less instantaneously via the internet.”

- John Urry, The Tourist Gaze, p. 45
Not that I needed any justification to make all of them.