THE DRONE TOURIST GAZE: INVESTIGATING LANDSCAPES AND SELF-REPRESENTATION

Abstract:

Drone technology introduces new imagery to the contemporary tourist experience. This research aims to explore the relationship between the landscape and the self-presentation of photographers, mediated through the drone gaze, specifically, “dronies” (selfies taken using drones). This paper is conceptual and empirical and adopts a predominantly exploratory and qualitative approach. The corpus consisted of the universe of photographs on the specialized website Skypixel, with the hashtag #dronies and their respective metadata. Not surprisingly, when it comes to landscape features, the most common environment is the countryside. This study analyses tourist photographs inspired by Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory. The relay (relais) between photography and caption predominates. Studium is more common than pungent imagery; the former may reveal the intentionality of the photographer in rendering landscapes a spectacle. The analysis of emotions also points to positive feelings among the viewers. In dronies, a juxtaposition occurs between tourists’ self-representation and the features of the landscape, and it is at this point that the concept of the drone gaze emerges. This gaze is a proposal of ours. Although resulting from a combination of previous theorizations, this gaze is distinct, as it includies mobility and online sharing as relevant factors, right from its inception. We can also observe both ruptures and continuities with conventional selfies.

Keywords:
drones; selfies; photography; tourist gaze; touristscapes