Response 3

Tourist and cameras have been around for many years, this article had many negative and positive points about tourism. I agreed with some of what Sontag said but for the most part I found myself disagreeing with him. I feel he was very negative towards tourist, what I retained from this article was he had some kind of problem with tourisms. Personally, I think tourism is a great thing, it gives people the chance to explore and capture moments from a different place. Although Sontag says some pretty ridiculous things about tourist he does explain the camera and the tourist relationship very well. For example when he states “The camera mediated reality for the tourist, it gives shape to his or her experience, and significantly, conveys the appearance of participation in the situation-having a camera transforms a person into something active, a voyeur.” This statement shows that tourist, in a way, are one with the camera. One point I strongly disagreed with was, when Sontag said “to photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed” (1977: 14) I believe that taking pictures of people, such as tourist do, is not violating the people. For example, while in Scotland I took pictures of people wearing kilts and they just put on a big smile and posed for the camera. They have a mirror they know what they look like, and by taking a picture of them shouldn’t change the knowledge of how they look.

Taking pictures is a part of everyone’s life, especially while on vacation. I take tons of pictures on vacation so I can look back and see where I have been and what I’ve done. When I’m on vacation I usually take pictures of scenery. I do this because there are many places in the world that don’t look like home, and these places mostly take my breath away. I like taking picture of breathtaking images while on vacation because I like to look back and remember how I felt when I was there. I also like taking pictures of me standing in front of signs, like boarders or landmarks. I mainly like taking these pictures so I can show them off to my friends and family. My pictures are very different from school to travel. While at school I tend to take more pictures of friends or going out at nights. I also take a lot of pictures of different events Zeta conducts. I don’t tend to take a lot of scenery pictures at school because I’m there all the time and I know how everything feels.

Many of my pictures that I take are put on facebook. I put them up on facebook to show my friends what I am doing and how much fun I am having. I also put them up because my mom recently just got a facebook and begs me to put pictures up. She says “I just want to see what my baby girl is doing.” Which I can understand, it’s a great way to keep in touch with someone and see how they are doing. I also like to put my pictures in frames and put them around my room. By doing so, it gives me a sense of things I have done or things I have accomplished in my life.

In conclusion, cameras and pictures are used for many different reasons. Tourist, vacation, or just to be silly and fun. Without photos people couldn’t look back and remember how they felt. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a thousand memories.