Whether it is an ad in the paper, or in an email sent to me from a travel company, images of popular tourist destinations cross my path everyday. From the Hollywood Sign to the Egyptian Pyramids, tourist icons are everywhere we look. So why is it that we still want to visit these places, see them in the flesh, when we can already view them so easily?

In chapter 5 of Curating Site, Shelley Hornstein notes that with the introduction of photography, ‘a vast public was suddenly captivated by the widespread and seductive images [of place]’. Hornstein argues that photographs play a role in the creation of place. Before visiting a site, we already have formed an opinion and understanding of said site through the photographs and other media we have seen.

When I visited New York, I was worried that my expectations were too high. In my head, New York was the ultimate city. Always busy, filled with a diverse range of people and with everything from the best food to the best shops and the best museums, New York was already perfect in my mind. Despite being able to sit at my desk and watch any number of TV shows with New York as the backdrop, or view millions of photos of the city, I wanted to experience it for myself. I think the reason we (or at least I) visit places we can virtually visit online is that we want to make sure that it is real. We want to see just how big the pyramids are for ourselves. We want to place ourselves in the perspective, to see how the places are with us the perspective. Most of all, I think we just want to feel included in something that is bigger than us.