Common places: Photography and tourism

Abstract

The following article focuses on the role of photography in the tourist experience, understood not only as an activity, but also as a tool for personal communication in which the physical space visited becomes text and the picture an appropriation and resignification of symbols. This text acquires meaning and power to the extent that it is sustained by doxa, the cultural mediation so integrated into a historical group that it does not allow for discussion. This point of view contributes to visiting certain places –and immortalizing them through photography– being seen as either in “good taste” or not, therefore contributing to personal strategies of social distinction.