Photography and Travel (Reaktion Books - Exposures)

Photography and travel go hand in hand—landmarks and scenic vistas everywhere are thronged by tourists with their eye to the view finder, trying to capture their memories on film or in megapixel. When the pioneers of photography, Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre, made their inventions public in 1839, advocates for the new technology immediately recognized photography’s capability to vividly present the spectacles of the world and make famous sights accessible to those who were not able to experience them in person. In this lively account of the partnership between photography and travel, Graham Smith explores the diverse ways pictures and travel have been partnered from the nineteenth century to today.

Taking us from France and Italy to Egypt, Japan, and North America, Smith illustrates how photography was influenced by new forms of transcontinental travel, including railroads, cars, and planes. He shows that as travel has become more democratized, the methods and experiences of it have developed in unexpected directions to create new photographic narratives. Smith also examines how photographers often go to great lengths and face considerable danger to record exotic destinations, from the ice caves of the Mer de Glace to the maw of Vesuvius, the summit of Mount Everest, and even the pockmarked surface of the moon. Packed with images from around the globe, Photography and Travel is the perfect book for intrepid photographers and armchair travelers alike.