Case Study: Tourism, Fashion And 'The Other'

I thought that this case study was a fairly accurate portrayal of how American culture as a whole is drawn to things that are considered exotic, especially in material objects. In today’s culture I find that many times we as a society are drawn to things that are exotic because we somehow see them as having a higher value. For example, like the Lancia advertisement mentioned in the study, things that are made in Italy are automatically held at a higher value than things that are manufactured domestically. Other objects of this type are sunglasses, fine Italian leather, cars and the list goes on but you get the point.

I also think the way that photography plays into this is huge. Photography has this ability to single out subjects and make the viewer, or in the case the consumer, see what you as the photographer or corporation want them to see. Again going back to the Lancia ad, the car company wanted the consumer to see this worker in the field to show that the car was a handcrafted luxury item. You can still this in car commercials today even though cars are mostly machine made from start to finish; they highlight the precision and detail of luxury car brands based in European countries such as Germany.