The primary activities of the people in these photos is that of looking and taking photographs. This makes them time travelers, because when taking a photo they are in the future already, looking back on their present and wondering how it should be framed for posterity. There's a nice tension between projecting forward and looking back. I can feel it when I take photos in similar circumstances, and I can see it in the way bodies are arranged in these shots.

Being a tourist with a camera displaces the present. One thinks too much of one's relationship with the supposed subject (in this case Niagara Falls) to actually be in a relationship with it. One "preserves" the present, "captures" a moment, "frames" a scene. There simply isn't time to be there. The present is never long enough, is it?

Full article here. Full Flickr set of 11 photos here.


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[Ash]

Interesting concept Robin.

The ones where it's just the photographer and the posing subject in the photo are just classic...