Postcards from Utila is a photography exhibition and a short film, examining the impact of the tourist boom in Utila, Honduras. The artist questions the representation of tourist destinations through the use of images focusing on idealized notions of beauty, and urges the audience to recognize the ways such framing dictates their perceptions.
As the main contributor to the Utilan economy, tourism is important to the livelihood of the local population. Many efforts are being made by the Honduran government to promote Utila and the Bay Islands as top tourist destinations without much regard for the potential negative after-effects of the industry.
By focusing on the subsequent development of social and environmental problems on the island, including; racially-motivated caste systems, drug-trafficking, over-fishing, mangrove and coral reef devastation, and the illegal killing of endangered animals (including the Swamper iguana and numerous shark species), Postcards from Utila explores the negation of these realities in travel literature, despite the role of tourism in exacerbating them.
Postcards from Utila was completed as a Master of Fine Arts Thesis project in Documentary Media at Ryerson University, and was launched in June 2011 during the DOC NOW Documentary Media Festival in Toronto. (www.docnow.ca)
To download the linked MFA paper, right-click here and save to your desktop.
