Broken Holiday – a place where nostalgia, global political crises, and the escapistic needs of the traveler mix together
Broken Holiday, photographic series 2016-2019
The tourism industry is changing now. The way we are used to vacation is confronted with the concerns about climate change and other political issues. The stages of tourism at the seaside resorts of the Mediterranean beachline are standing next to the unfinished construction projects. These modern ruins are in the gap between the future and the past, where the most beautiful sunset cannot give us more than just a short respite from these big questions.
Broken Holiday is a photographic series about beach vacation experiences. It is a journey, in which a photographer tries to find a clear understanding of the place and her relationship to it. At the same time the work offers a route to a “generic” beach vacation experience, where the viewer can place him/herself. The themes of memory, expectations and waiting play a key role in my work as I also reflect on my own childhood holidays spent at the same kind of locations. I look for the recurring visual elements that create a setting where Paolo Sorrentino’s anaesthetised melodrama meets Martin Parr’s The Last Resort. The concept of a dream holiday is put under contemplation as well as the quiet fading of the local culture.
The series was photographed during the years 2016-2019 in Northern Cyprus and Turkey. The series shows ways of observing the beach landscapes with their hotel concentrations experienced during a beach holiday. Together, the images form a continuum of observation, like walking on the beach, showing the internal contradictions about a place where nostalgia, global political crises, and the escapist needs of the traveler mix. At the same time, the series is a wanderer ́s attempt to understand why I am on a beach holiday, and what is my role here.
During the artistic process of the series I reflect on the memories that emerge from the holiday photos of family albums and also deal with the package travel culture and the effects of the seasonal thinking of tourism. The tourism industry plays a big role in the Mediterranean countries such as Turkey and Cyprus. That’s why it has also been used as a significant power tool in politics.
What happens if an artificial marble column turns old and a 90’s waterpark goes finally out of fashion? What if we start to associate the Mediterranean with a crisis instead of a holiday resort? What happens now after Covid-19? Do we start to question the ready-made recipe of escapism? Invisible uncertainties shape the narratives around these locations as the yearly cycle keeps turning once again in hope of a prosperous resurrection.
Series is also published as a Broken Holiday Album photobook in September 2022 by Kerber Verlag.
