Travel Marketing and Popular Photography in Britain, 1888–1939 Reading the Travel Image

This book explores how popular photography influenced the representation of travel in Britain in the period from the Kodak-led emergence of compact cameras in 1888, to 1939. The book examines the implications of people’s increasing familiarity with the language and possibilities of photography on the representation of travel as educational concerns gave way to commercial imperatives. Sara Dominici takes as a touchstone the first fifty years of activity of the Polytechnic Touring Association (PTA), a London-based philanthropic-turned-commercial travel firm. As the book reveals, the relationship between popular photography and travel marketing was shaped by the different desires and expectations that consumers and institutions bestowed on photography: this was the struggle for the interpretation of the travel image.

Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction: Reading Travel Images 2. Travelling and Photographing: Social Norms and Personal Motivations 3. The Education of Tourist Photographers 4. The Interwar Years: Tourists’ Desires and Photographic Competitions 5. Photography, Commercial Art and Branding 6. Conclusion: Towards New Photographic Histories Index

Sara Dominici is a Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Course Leader for the MA in Art and Visual Culture at the University of Westminster, London. Her writing focuses on the history and culture of photography, the relationship between photography and the archive, and cultural studies.