London exists in my memory almost more as a person than a place. The nostalgia that I was able to develop for a city that I only explored for a small amount of time is remarkable. “There” becomes “She” as I reminisce about the intricacies of my experience: a lovely and inspiring one.

London is accessible. Being aware of my post-trip banter with friends and family, I notice that an adjective I frequently use to describe Londoners is mobile. Accessibility and the ability to efficiently commute are important contributors to the overall speed of London.

London is energetic. Coming home, I was shocked at the comparative slowness of Columbus. Living for 22 years in the quaintness of suburbia, I am pleased to find so much excitement by being in a large city. I adore the hustle of London’s beautiful working people, the excitement of the plethora of children on field trips: even the homeless were kind. It was the cleanest and classiest city I have ever been in. It has begun a stirring within me to also explore the cities that other countries have to offer. London opened her arms to me and allowed me to walk freely, more independent than I have ever felt. I know that I will see her again.

Today’s festivities included visiting the British Museum, walking among the high rises of the city, and taking a boat trip to Greenwich; all culminating into a magical day. In contemplation of my experiences, I can’t help but feel impressed upon by my first visit to the British museum. It was an incredible repertoire of knowledge and record. Representing an epitome of a museum experience and a prime example of British exhibitionism, the British Museum struck me with a powerful conviction: the idea of exhibition itself. I am deeply concerned with the interesting conversation about the ethics of the British ownership of the Greek Parthenon. The world becomes a material to be collected, gathered and sorted. Worshipped, conserved and researched. Exploited, colonized, stolen. Ethics becomes relative. How do we gauge cultural and ethical responsibility?

This reminds me of the controversial work of performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco. Their “The Couple in the Cage” challenged these ideas as an ironic reenactment of the imperialist practice of displaying indigenous peoples in exhibition to be empirically exploited by white intellectuals. By performing “The Couple in the Cage” in various museums, Fusco and Gómez-Peña were exposing the racism, colonialism, and voyeurism of developed countries. Appearing five hundred years after Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, they performed live in museums displayed as an exhibition of Amerindians from an island in the Gulf of Mexico that had somehow been overlooked for five centuries. They called their homeland Guatinau and themselves Guatinauis. Most important to the work includes the reaction of the audience. Filmed, their behavior reveals the racist ideology that exists among a postcolonial society that understands non-western people as primitive and objects of exhibition. Fusco relates “In such encounters with the unexpected, people’s defense mechanisms are less likely to operate with their normal efficiency; caught off-guard, their beliefs are more likely to rise to the surface.”

London lies at the heart of this debate.

Today was a walking tour. Led by our generous and adorable tour guide, it was an incredible opportunity to see such a large portion of the city in such a comprehensive way. Walking a staggering 12 miles and taking over 27,000 steps, London feels more graspable and tangible to me than ever before. However, this amount of coverage inherently takes time. Through the hurriedness of our demanding day, I began to mindlessly notice an interesting behavior amongst the group. This behavior, which existed amongst myself as well, became incredibly interesting to me. We are fervent picture takers. Whether for needing material to put on blogs, for uploading to social media or for sending as a “miss you” to mom, we maintain an incredible compulsivity to capture a moment and remember a time and place. How does photography relate to tourism?

Art philosopher and writer Susan Sontag famously coined “to collect photographs is to collect the world.” In her famous essay In Plato’s Cave, she beautifully presents us with a metaphor. She argues for the imprisonment of humanity within Plato’s Cave, a cave in which the shadows cast within the cave sourced from subjects outside of the cave are mistaken for reality. Sontag compares the allegory of these shadows to photos: they are not real. Speaking to the compulsivity within us to photograph, she writes “photographs will offer indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun was had.” A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it—by limiting experience into an image, a souvenir. We want to be able to go back and experience our experience over again through looking at the digitalization of a flattened world unconcerned with us. Photography has become one of the principal devices for experiencing something, for giving an appearance of participation. Fittingly, “ In end-of-the-century London, Samuel Butler complained that “there is a photographer in every bush, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” The photographer is now charging real beasts, beleaguered and too rare to kill. Guns have metamorphosed into cameras in this earnest comedy, the ecology safari, because nature has ceased to be what it always had been–what people needed protection from. Now nature–tamed, endangered, mortal–needs to be protected from people. When we are afraid, we shoot. But when we are nostalgic, we take pictures. Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable that they encounter.

Thinking about the metaphors for photography and film: to load, to aim, to shoot, to take. Also, it’s the queen. Found on walk by Hyde Park

Yes, it can get rather philosophical. I think that one can’t leave London without a “Storage Full” notification, but these ideas are something to just keep in mind. When traveling to a place with the intentions of intimacy and cultural immersion, just remember the physical and psychological separation that can exist through the compulsive need to record.

Above all, soak in your experiences, live in the moment and let places inspire you.

Goodnight little birds