ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that people are drawn to and engages in tourist photography in order to accumulate memory-stories. It explores why tourists are so busy accumulating memories and why the production of memories assumes an important role. Tourist studies have been slow to recognize that the social importance of holidaymaking exceeds beyond the period of the 'two-week holiday'. The chapter examines how tourists use photography to construct memory-visions reflecting idealized family and holiday life. It explores the social basis of tourist photography within the context of late-modern 'family life'. The chapter discusses why the 'family gaze' is crucial to social relations of family intimacy. It demonstrates how a wide range of places are captured and transformed into theatrical spaces for photography, and shows that more than half the images portray family members and friends 'performing places' or acting for cameras.
