Vacation Pics (2011)
The Caribbean is one of the most tourism-reliant regions in the world. It could be argued that this brings economic growth to the region. However, if examined more closely, the power dynamics within tourism can be traced back to the Caribbean's colonial history. Contemporary vacation photos can be also be traced back to the beginnings of photography (taken by the elite) at the time of European imperialism. Picturesque, typical and authentic are all loaded terms used in early photography - still heard today - which can be understood as systems of classification. Both The Good Life series and Vacation Pics play with the vacation photograph to examine the notion of the picturesque in the Caribbean.
Vacation Pics is series of photographs in which the visual image has been removed. Attached to each photograph is an audio description of the scene portrayed. This series considers how vacation photographs are a system of classifying and ordering the vacation experience giving the photographer control over the unknown. The visited country can then be understood from the photographer's perspective.
It also pokes funs at our contemporary image-saturated culture. Describing orally the scene in detail including sensations felt by the other senses and denying the visual draws attention to Western over-reliance upon the visual. We prefer to see an image than only rely upon oral description when being told about an unknown place or experience. In this era of social media, it is argued that lived moments become Kodak moments and our lives become a series of photographs as opposed to lived experiences.