Postcards from Malta : image, consumption, context

Abstract

This paper examines the contexts and complexity of consumption of Maltese postcard images at the meta-level. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives on the nature of photography as a system of representation and its associated social function and applies it to the theory and analysis of tourist desire and motivation. Analysis within this framework suggests that while certain stereotypical images of Malta as an exoticized "sun and sea" destination are sustained, imagery has diversified as tourists attempt to penetrate "backstage realities". The co-existence of these images points to the increasingly sophisticated and complex motivations of contemporary tourism and to more complex representational structures and strategies that raise particular and general ethical issues.