The intention of photography as a medium is to faithfully represent the reality (Barthes). However, given the advancement of photographic processes, particularly in the digitisation age, camera users are frequently reduced to involuntary executives of the will of algorithms whose opus operandi is no longer within our comprehension (Flusser). Alternative photography-focused movements are emerging that try to go beyond this mainstream. Their rebellion-inspired activities revolve around the search for the forgotten paths, both in the analogue photographic processes (e.g. paper negative, daguerreotype, talbotype) and optical systems reduced to a minimum (e.g. camera obscura). Their works are to provoke the viewer to focus on the surface of the photography rather than treat it as a transparent medium. This phenomenon is analysed in terms of post-tourism defined in opposition to the practices of mass tourism industry. The photographic projects discussed in this article (Decyk, Klupś, Krawiec, Sternak) reveal the potential of the ‘Antiquarian Avant-Garde’ (Rexer) in shifting the accents from must-sees and selfies to mindfulness-mediated personal travel experiences.
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