Travel photos are becoming more and more like fashion editorials
"Usually, I don't share my photos ...' I cannot tell you how many times I have read this written under an Instagram or Facebook image . A photo of a woman with a smile in front of a cool building or a beautiful landscape. It probably also mentions that it doesn't turn out very well. In the text, she will blame it on the heat or the cold, on a long walk. anything to explain why doesn't she appear perfect even if it does. Because, somehow, in an industry where we're supposed to seek adventure, get dirty, wet, muddy and sweat, we're also supposed to always be beautiful . And in some way, they punish us if we're not."
This is how Logan opens his entrance, and we cannot say that he is wrong. In fact, even though **our favorite accounts** don't exactly follow this pattern, we do find ourselves drawn to them. ethereal and wonderful travelers and travelers , whose aesthetic options suggest that, more than with a suitcase, they travel with a full wardrobe . But what is truly worrying is: why is this constant "blame" about how we look to the world? "Women we apologize for everything because we have been educated for it, above all, if we are not beautiful, clean and presentable. Is about gender socialization pure and simple", explains the psychologist jara perez .
Thus, Logan invites us to review the Instagram profiles of most followed female travelers , including, for example, Jennifer Tuffen - Izkiz- (with 2.7 million followers, Lauren Bullen - Gypsea_Lust -, with 1.9 million or Angelica Blick -with 1.2 million-. "In how many of those photos they come out in a bikini ? Look at the 'likes' on them and compare them to the ones he has on others he dates more clothes. Do you notice a difference? Now, look for images where they have the flushed face , in which they are sweating or go out with the frizzy hair of hiking in the rain and humidity. It's practically impossible to find them And it's not because they don't exist. They do, and some are amazing. But women believe that... well, that they are not 'pretty' enough in these photos to show them".
The trend is easy to see: the travel photographs , especially those of the most successful accounts, look more and more like fashion editorials . "I think there is a concern over aesthetics in most areas today, above all, with what has to do with the social networks. We want everything to be perfect to be able to show the world something that we are not, what we want to be. One does not know if what one is experiencing is ** as wonderful as what the person next door is experiencing **, because satisfaction is something that it can not be measured. What can be measured are Instagram likes and, sometimes, we evaluate the wonders what we do afterwards counting the likes that we achieved", explains Pérez.
In the opinion of Hernando Gomez , professor of photography at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication of the European University , "there is a tendency and acceptance of the aesthetic that surrounds us through the media, advertising, cinema... and, of course, Fashion is among these. It imposes beauty standards and role models that respond to the needs of societies to find approval and approval of others . This is not new, and it has been like this constantly," he explains.
Gómez also warns us that this same aestheticism has always been present in the travel magazines : "It is only necessary to review them to realize that image quality , care and attention to small details tend to idealization because obviously is what we intend to consume the readers".
For her part, Dr. Martha Marin , Professor of Aesthetics and Director of the Master in Fashion Communication from the Ramón Llull University , believes that one of the reasons why fashion photography has also moved to the "amateur" profiles of social networks responds not only to its great power of seduction, but also to the need to stand out from the rest : "Visual expression is fundamental in a market context saturated with images , and the fact of promoting it helps us to be more noticeable and relevant, "she warns.
WHY ONLY WOMEN?
Logan, for his part, admits that she also likes to follow those accounts of female travelers for their spectacularity although she considers that they do not reflect reality of them: "Do women sit bust out , hips tilted to one side and a sexy grimace ? Are there so many women wearing perfectly straight hair and makeup to the beach? I don't, neither do I none of the travelers that I know".
Thus, the author believes that the artistic part of those images has surpassed reality of them, from which, in her opinion, a problem arises: that they end up acting against of what she and many other bloggers are trying to do: encourage women to travel . "We already live in a world where women they doubt themselves and they don't like each other, and they struggle to feel beautiful and well in their day to day. Focusing so much on physical beauty, Are we turning the travel industry into the next Hollywood, in a fashion show ? ", she asks herself, to end up answering:" I think so ".
The fact that Logan focuses on the traveling women , and not in men, has the explanation of it, according to dr. Marin: "It's about a cultural factor. Physical beauty has been applied for centuries only to women not to men. While for them, physical beauty has been a valuable asset, they have been valued for their courage, honesty, effort, etc. Now that we also begin to value the male physical beauty and the brands begin to influence this fact, we will see how they are produced some changes. The Instagram profiles of men who present themselves and (re) present themselves will increase, although they are hardly equal, at a numerical level, with that of women".
In fact, the statistics suggest that there are more female users than masculine on the platform, and even that, while ** women post more selfies ** and images in which they look the viewer directly in the eye, men prefer full body shots in which they show his more adventurous side.
PHOTOS THAT DO NOT ENCOURAGE YOU TO TRAVEL
"What curvy girl, I was scared to go to Thailand. I was scared not to fit in because I didn't have a "bikini body". Or stand out too much, that they will make fun of me or harass me because I don't have a certain kind of look," says Logan. The reason? "When I would look at photos of the country, I didn't see pictures of big girls lying on the beach or exploring the jungle. I only saw pictures of lithe, shapely bodies in mini bikinis and skimpy shorts. If you add to that the fact that I know that Asian girls are much smaller than American girls, do you understand why I was worried?
Finally, despite her fears, Logan had a great time in Thailand and he felt nothing that frightened him at first. However, due to the ** publication of the article ** in which he expressed these fears, he has realized that there are many women all over the world that they prefer not to travel to certain places because they think that they won't fit . "It gives me the impression that, through social networks and these types of photos in which everything is thought to the millimeter, ordinary people tend to feel too crude, too cheap, too real, too fat, too thin, etc. What is happening is that the reality factor is being eliminated, and that makes us feel Complexed ", explains the psychologist Jara Pérez.
the dr. Marin also agrees: " We shouldn't have these kinds of thoughts , but there is no doubt that these visual impacts that we are constantly receiving are forging stereotypes in which we project ourselves. Perhaps we should educate people on proposals that contemplate the diversity and teach us to value different beauty patterns existing. The ideals of beauty they are fickle , and today, several brands choose models that break uniformity and the monotony of the taxes imposed: the beauty of imperfection challenges us, although it may only reach a certain type of public not the mainstream."
In fact, Logan thinks that the fact that these picture perfect have become fashionable is the fault of the entire tourism industry, from clothing brands design garments "for travel" -and that, as she herself points out, they only manufacture up to certain sizes - up to the announcements of the cruise companies. However, the author thinks that, at the same time, they are the "weakest" links of the industry those who have in their hands to change it.
She refers to "bloggers, photographers, videographers and the avid travelers who understand that traveling it's not always pretty. That It doesn't even have to do with being pretty. but with feeling empowered , with learning from other cultures and accept them." "We can change the focus and put it in what really matters : the adventures, the excitement, the happiness and the smiles that they are already beautiful by themselves, Even if they are accompanied by frizzy hair and sweaty skin . Let's focus on what female travelers are doing, not what they look like doing it. Because that's really sexy ".