Introduction

Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book considers the role of photography in the politics of gender and meaning construction and how these terms implicate economics, politics, ethnicity and heterosexual desire. It shows how images of women have been used to promote everything from tourism to the 'Cyprus problem'. The book investigates ways in which tourism has mobilized images of women at the beach in order to promote Cyprus as an attractive beach destination. It presents the case study to explore how its socio-cultural construction, evident in photographic representations of the location, informs the projected visual identity of the island. The book explores the ways these images influence tourists' expectations and, as an effect, the way tourists themselves photograph the location. It explores some of the political, temporal and religious contexts in which the photographic Pieta is found in Cyprus and elsewhere.