As a technology based on the natural power of light, the camera seemed particularly suited to the task of illuminating the secrets
of the continent. However, through their supposed power to reveal the unknown and the geographical truth, photographs made by British explorers in Africa
tended to reinforce the established image of the African interior as a place of disease, death and barbarism. |
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By presenting such imagery as the visual truth, photography played a significant part in the process by which, as Patrick Brantlinger
has put it, “Africa grew ‘dark’ as Victorian explorers, missionaries and scientists flooded it with light.”
The individual Grand Tour of the affluent aristocracy is now almost buried under the weight of the global
tourist industry. What began as practical training and education for aspiring diplomats and men of letters, a linguistic and cultural journey of
exploration to the alleged ‘cradles of European civilisation’ - meaning Greece and Rome - rapidly turned into an organised service industry.
It is almost axiomatic that this expansion was contemporaneous with the rapid colonial expansion of the European powers especially Britain and France.
The same logistic know-how developed for administering colonies, carrying out military deployment and providing a worldwide trade in goods and services,
together with the surplus wealth generated by that whole enterprise itself, meant that an increasing segment of the population was able to travel for
pleasure. Initially this was within national borders but it spread rapidly, soon taking in all of Europe as well as further afield. So it is no coincidence
that in England in 1851 Thomas Cook, an English clergyman was able to sell (in Northern England alone) over 150,000 tickets at 5/- each to people who
wanted to visit the Great Exhibition. The ticket included rail fare, eating and sleeping in London and admission. For the Paris Exhibition he provided
a similar service which, in addition, included help with passport applications and French-speaking guides. |
