“Barcelona Tram and Street Art, Dual Exposed,” from Touring Tourism, 16” x 20” C-print, 2022
Megan Bainbridge
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“Barcelona Tram and Street Art, Dual Exposed,” is a 16" x 20" color darkroom photograph from my "Touring Tourism" series. This photo series explores my experience as a German American studying abroad throughout Europe during Summer 2022. I created it to encourage others to alter how they approach traveling. Read on to learn more about the "Touring Tourism" series and this photographic art piece.
In my "Touring Tourism" series, I explore my role as a tourist traveling from the United States to study abroad throughout Europe. I chose to photograph both recognizable attractions and lesser-known locations.
In my artist statements, I provide context to explain my thought process and experience traveling in and around Barcelona, Spain; Rome, Italy; and Prague, Czechia. I explore observed cultural differences and the habits of tourists.
The purpose of this body of work is to invite the viewer to reflect on how they travel and act as a tourist. In particular, I aim to promote the concept of ethical tourism and encourage travelers to be mindful of how their actions impact the residents of the regions that they visit. Through anecdotal narrative, I reflect on how much more enriching travel becomes when authentic connection is prioritized.
I am passionate about this topic for multiple reasons. On the academic side of things, I studied Sociology in college, obtaining a Bachelors in the subject alongside my Photography BFA. Personally, I have a dual-national lens when looking at how people from different places act. This is because I grew up navigating the difference between German cultural attitudes that my mother taught me and the societal norms of my home in the United States. In addition, I grew up in a coastal city in Southern Maine that is impacted by tourism every summer and can relate to how residents of a travel destination view tourism.
I use experimental darkroom techniques for this series, creating dual exposures by layering negatives, as well as collaging multiple 35mm negatives into the circular silhouette of the darkroom enlarger head.
With all this being said, here is the artist statement for “Barcelona Tram and Street Art, Dual Exposed":
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Two of my favorite parts of spending a month in Barcelona were the public transportation system and the great quantity and quality of street art. In this piece, I layered images of an arriving tram outside of Parc de la Ciutadella and a spray painted piece of a woman with rabbit ears on a garage door. I exposed the piece with light twice, creating layers of cyan and magenta.
My Catalonian Art History professor even let me do my final creative project on Barcelona Street Art and how what I found related to the class content. From reading articles he assigned us, I learned about the controversial role of tourism in Barcelona–that many parts of the city were curated to attract tourists by moving monuments and creating structures in faux-olden styles. I also learned that tourism has roots in the academic elite traveling as a form of education, making myself and the other study abroad students the most touristic of them all.
From learning this, I decided to try my best to be an ethical tourist and bother the locals as little as possible–and to make a point to continue my interest in the local culture and people, even if that meant going to events alone without my disinterested classmates.
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If you felt particularly moved, inspired, or educated by this piece, consider supporting the work that I do by purchasing a print, t-shirt, sticker or magnet from the megarten.shop. My business is small, queer and woman-owned, and artist-run. Plus, all of my artwork is human-generated. You can learn more about me as an artist here.