Photography and Travel

Camera "Had Robert been following them around with a camera? Was he following them now? Mary shrugged and glanced back. Colin looked back too. There were cameras everywhere. Suspended like aquarium fish against a watery background of limbs and clothes, but Robert was not there. 'Perhaps,' Mary said, 'he thinks you have a nice face.'(97) Due to Robert's creepy and inappropriate use of a camera, Ian McEwan's "The Comfort of Strangers" made me thinks a lot about the relationship between photography and travel. Although Robert isn't using his camera during travel, because he himself lives in Venice, the couple looks around suspiciously to see if Robert is spying on them, and, in doing so, notice the vast array of cameras at every turn. When traveling, we use cameras to help us remember the trip once it is over, for apparently, our own memories are inept. In addition, photographs act as proof; by taking a picture of a person in front of a certain church, one can prove that this person did in fact exists, as did the church, and that they were once together.

However, one must also question the disadvantages of using a camera while traveling. If one is simply seeing everything through the lens of a camera instead of through his or her own eyes, is the experience as significant? I would have to argue that no, it is not. For example, although I would hesitate to ever give him such advice, Robert could have creepily enjoyed seeing Colin more if he had just watched him in person, instead of spending the time taking pictures to fascinate over back at his house. The photographs themselves work almost as masochistic tools; we are able to look back and long for something that we never quite saw, because we were too busy photographing. This does not only pertain to Robert—I think there’s a bit of this desire to long for something in all of us. The role of photography also takes place in Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice,” which compares quite easily to McEwan’s novella. In the end of Mann’s text, Aschenbach dies while a camera stands idly on the beach, with no one to take a picture of him. Although the significance of this camera is debatable, I personally believe that Mann is making a point of showing how those who are important to Aschenbach, at this point being only Tadzio, will not remember him. Because there is no one there to take his picture, there is no proof. Thus, if based on my understanding of the camera in “Death in Venice,” this book is not as similar to McEwan’s as is often said. While McEwan seems to be mocking photography during travel, Mann perhaps believes that the photographic proof of a person having been in a place is necessary, for, otherwise, the circumstance will be forgotten, and fade into travel oblivion.