The Ethics of Tourist Photography: Tourists' Experiences of Photographing Locals in Peru

Abstract

Despite references to photography as a tool for consuming and constructing the tourist experience, little attention has been afforded to the effects of such practice. In this paper I therefore seek to unpack the ethics of the seemingly fleeting relationships between tourists and host communities that emerge during photographic encounters. Focusing on the emergent interactions between tourists and locals who are photographed, I explore the social and cultural values that underpin tourists' ethical considerations of whether or not to photograph local people. In doing so, I first contend that tourists draw upon a range of photographic strategies as they negotiate the moral maze of ethical considerations during photographic encounters and engagement with locals at destinations. Secondly, I suggest that the ethical considerations of tourist photographic practice find genesis in a web of partial knowledges, subjective interpretations, and reflexive performances of self and others. In doing so, I propose that tourist practice is driven by subjective interpretations of that which is appropriate, acceptable, or responsible with regard to photographing. Thus, I contend, an immanence of ethical consideration arises in the immediacy of the moment of photographing, as photography emerges as a complex fusion of both predictable and reactionary practices that align general ethical viewpoints with unpredictable ethical responses.