"The tourist's accountability of the experience resides in the souvenir, the snapshot or video-tape-irreducible pieces of portable evidence of the sight having been seen. The camera is the ultimate authenticating agent." (p.35)
As a society we rely more and more on our digicams to "record" memories of experiences we do not want to forget. We believe taking mass amounts of photographs is the only method of remembering exacly what was felt to be at a cetain place. However, pictures are a recording device. The photograph triggers the memories we compose within us, from the busy crowds, the freshly baked bread smell, the sounds of the crackiling fireworks, the warm breeze...The more time we spend snapping pictures and veiwing the world through the LCD screen, the less time we will actually captulate the genus loci of a place.
On my trip to L.A. for instance, I found that the most relaxing and memoral moments were the ones in which my digital camera was full and could hold no more pictures. All my senses were engaged during these moments, and I could truly situate myself within the space. At these times I would pull out my sketchbook and draw some guerilla sketches of the things that caught my eye. I found drawing was a much more methodical and gratifying way of recording a moment in time, as opposed to photography, because the images I captured on paper represented my own interpretation of the place. I later reflected on what I represented as most significant to me in that particular situation, and this allowed me to understand the space on a different level.
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