take a picture of yourself to prove that you exist

 

tourism slips in and out of a city. one minute it’s evident in the action of a person, taking a photograph, the next, its gone, returned to the anonymous position of a person walking through a crowd. particular sites become loaded with memorial significance for a moment, and maybe later, as a snapshot and a story, but they also return to being places of urban significance—a local site of everyday ritual.

take a picture...intervenes within the urban sites of tourism in Sydney to highlight a dialogue about art theory, photography and its conceits, photographic conceits that are particularly highlighted within touristic endeavour. photographic truth is a fundamental imaginary of tourism photography. photographs are taken to remember a particular place but also to prove that the tourist saw that particular site—here martin place and hyde park, and to evidence their visit to friends, relatives and co-workers.

to be photographed is to be seen, to perform for those absent viewers but what of those that avoid the lens, that refuse the documentary? see video links here and here.

 

 

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