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010 _a2006020428
020 _a9780822337515
040 _c--
050 _aG155.C35T53 2006
082 _a338.4'7917292045--
082 _bdc22
100 _aThompson, Krista A.
_91404
245 3 _aAn Eye for the Tropics
_b: Tourism, Photography, and Framing the Caribbean Picturesque
_c/ Krista A. Thompson
260 _aDurham and London;
_bDuke University Press;
_c2006
300 _a370p;
_c22x18cm
490 _aObjects | Histories- Critical Perspectives on Art, Material Culture, and Representation
520 _aImages of Jamaica and the Bahamas as tropical paradises full of palm trees, white sandy beaches, and inviting warm water seem timeless. Surprisingly, the origins of those images can be traced back to the roots of the islands' tourism industry in the 1880s. As Krista A. Thompson explains, in the late nineteenth century, tourism promoters, backed by British colonial administrators, began to market Jamaica and the Bahamas as picturesque "tropical" paradises. They hired photographers and artists to create carefully crafted representations, which then circulated internationally via postcards and illustrated guides and lectures.Illustrated with more than one hundred images, including many in color, An Eye for the Tropics is a nuanced evaluation of the aesthetics of the "tropicalizing images" and their effects on Jamaica and the Bahamas. Thompson describes how representations created to project an image to the outside world altered everyday life on the islands. Hoteliers imported tropical plants to make the islands look more like the images. Many prominent tourist-oriented spaces, including hotels and famous beaches, became off-limits to the islands' black populations, who were encouraged to act like the disciplined, loyal colonial subjects depicted in the pictures. Analyzing the work of specific photographers and artists who created tropical representations of Jamaica and the Bahamas between the 1880s and the 1930s, Thompson shows how their images differ from the English picturesque landscape tradition. Turning to the present, she examines how tropicalizing images are deconstructed in works by contemporary artists-including Christopher Cozier, David Bailey, and Irenee Shaw-at the same time that they remain a staple of postcolonial governments' vigorous efforts to attract tourists.
546 _aEnglish
648 _a21st century
_91405
650 _aTR624-835 Technology- Applied Photography
_938
650 _aTravel Photography
_91406
651 _aCarribean
_91407
942 _cBK
_2lcc
999 _c3609
_d3609