“Correfoc Sparks Over MACBA Skater, Dual Exposed,” from Touring Tourism, 16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
This piece contains two images: the flying sparks of the Correfoc Festes de Maig del Poblenou and a skateboarder outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona (MACBA). A Correfoc is a “fire-run,” a Catalan tradition where locals dress up as monstrous creatures that light up fireworks. The sparks pictured are from the Correfoc Festival of May that took place in Poblenou, a neighborhood event that my host family invited me to. I was shocked to see that young children were allowed to hold the fireworks–they seemed to be having fun! In terms of the skateboarder, I visited and photographed skaters there because MACBA is known as a Barcelona skate spot. As a skateboarder myself, it was exciting to see the skaters at MACBA in person. I grouped these two images together because I felt that they both conveyed aspects of visiting another country that are more personal than surface-level tourism, a concept that I encourage others to explore.
“Barcelona Tram and Street Art, Dual Exposed,” from Touring Tourism, 16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
Two of my favorite parts of spending a month in Barcelona were the public transportation system and the great quantity and quality of street art. In this piece, I layered images of an arriving tram outside of Parc de la Ciutadella and a spray painted piece of a woman with rabbit ears on a garage door. I exposed the piece with light twice, creating layers of cyan and magenta. My Catalonian Art History professor even let me do my final creative project on Barcelona Street Art and how what I found related to the class content. From reading articles he assigned us, I learned about the controversial role of tourism in Barcelona–that many parts of the city were curated to attract tourists by moving monuments and creating structures in faux-olden styles. I also learned that tourism has roots in the academic elite traveling as a form of education, making myself and the other study abroad students the most touristic of them all. From learning this, I decided to try my best to be an ethical tourist and bother the locals as little as possible–and to make a point to continue my interest in the local culture and people, even if that meant going to events alone without my disinterested classmates.
“Bike Jesus Graffiti and a Plzeň Tram, Dual Exposed,” from Touring Tourism, 16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
My favorite location in Prague is Bike Jesus; a multifunctional space including a club, bar, and an outdoor bicycle pump track. Interestingly enough, this location is one that my Contemporary Czech Culture Professor recommended visiting. When entering the space, you can tell that this is a welcoming meeting place for young adults that value social justice, having outdoor firepits for cooking vegetables and a mural stating “BLACK LIVES MATTER, ROMA LIVES MATTER TOO”. Something I learned while in Czechia is that there is an ethnic minority there known as the Romani people who continue to experience considerable economic and educational hardship, a group that was once targeted by the Nazis and radical social policies of the Communist era. With the same love for graffiti and public transportation that I found in Barcelona, I layered this piece with a dual exposure of a Plzeň tram and graffiti found at Bike Jesus, creating an abstracted composition. Prague has a prolific street artist community, including the likes of Jan Kalab and Pasta Oner; it felt appropriate to include photography with Czech graffiti as a subject.
“Light Trails Over the David,” from Touring Tourism,
16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
On a weekend trip to Florence with my classmates, we took a trip to the Accademia Gallery, an art museum home to Michelangelo’s David (pictured). As an artist studying sociology, I have an interest in how people interact with art, such as this couple sharing a moment gazing at the David statue. I have found that in many ways, people interact with art as tourists do with locations of interest. They photograph the work, or themselves with the work. It makes me wonder, how important is the work or location itself to the viewer in comparison to the importance of snapping a photograph with it? With the increasing interest on image and the self in today’s society, I wouldn’t be surprised if it leans toward the latter.
“Men’s Room in a Plzeň Lokal, Enlarged,” from Touring Tourism, 16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
While visiting Plzeň (Pilsen) on a trip sponsored by my study abroad program, we stopped in a Lokal (a classic Czech Cuisine restaurant) to use the bathroom. The men’s room was propped open and the decorations caught my eye. I was fascinated by the pornographic wall decorations and a trough-style shared urinal (bottom left), both visions that I would not expect to see in a United States restaurant bathroom. I decided to document this cultural difference, a subject that fascinates me, on film. This piece is an experimental darkroom enlargement of four 35mm negatives, a composition used for one other piece in the Touring Tourism series.
“Holding Up the Leaning Tower with a Painted Negative” from Touring Tourism, 16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
Although this image is of a tourist holding up her hands to support the Leaning Tower of Pisa, its intent has nothing to do with her identity–in fact, in some ways it is both a self-portrait and a portrait of many people. To drive this point, I shielded her silhouette with a painted negative. While in Italy, my self-awareness of my role as a tourist increased and the ever-prevalent touristic behavior of my study abroad classmates persisted. The fact that the group I was traveling with sprinted off of the train during a short layover in Pisa to snap photos with the tower is a metaphor for the behavior of tourists and their relationship with photography. It is strange that taking a photo with a location is the priority of tourists, over the physical experience of a location. I included this photo to communicate the lack of identity in tourist photos. My question is, what does it matter that we are yet another tourist posing with a location, a photo recreated uncountable times? Does it create group identity, a status symbol, or something else?
“Parked Car in Positano, Enlarged,” from Touring Tourism,
16” x 20” C-41 print, 2022
An iconic location that visitors flock to in Italy is the Amalfi Coast. While visiting the cliffside village of Positano, located along this same coast, I realized how much the city catered to tourists. As someone who lives in a coastal tourist town in Maine, it reminded me of home and the love-hate relationship that residents have with tourists. While walking along a coastal road that led outside of the center, I came across an antique parked car. I decided to photograph the same car repeatedly at a relatively slow shutter speed to capture the blur of other vehicles passing by. This piece is an experimental darkroom enlargement of four 35mm negatives, a composition used for one other piece in the Touring Tourism Exhibition collection.