Conducting online keyword searches for monuments, Swiss/French artist Corinne Vionnet culled thousands of tourists’ snapshots for her series Photo Opportunities. Working with several hundred photographs of a single monument, the artist weaves together small sections of the appropriated images to create each layered, ethereal structure. Famed landmarks appear to float gently in a dream-like haze of blue sky. Each construction espouses the "touristic gaze"i, its distorted visual referent functions as a device for memory transport by funneling many experiences into one familiar locale.
We leave for Paris tomorrow afternoon, and I'm sure I'll fall into the trap of taking the same picture of the Eiffel Tower from the same vantage point as every other tourist. But it's nice to see that even that staid shot can offer someone else a new way of seeing -- even help them find a way to make the world anew.