The Use of Photo‐elicitation in Tourism Research – Framing the Backpacker Experience

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the use of photo‐elicitation as a method for data collection as well as a method for analysis. By using a study on backpacker tourism where the respondents' own photographs were used in in‐depth interviews as an example, the immersion of data collection and analysis is illustrated through the backpackers' narratives and experiences of travel photography. The theoretical point of departure in the study on backpackers was the social construction of the travel experience as liminal, playful and extraordinary. Considering the phenomenon of backpacking tourism as a gradually institutionalized phenomenon, constructing the extraordinary – including authenticity as an important criterion – became, from the backpacker's perspective, an act of balance between emphasizing individuality and simultaneously conforming to the ideals and norms of the backpacker culture. The contradictory conditions of the backpacker experience were highlighted through narratives on photography and the analysis was focussing on ambivalent experiences. Following Simmel's dichotomy between individuality and social form, four analytical themes were developed: “Framing the unique”, “framing the local scene”, “catching the moment” and “the deviants among backpackers”. The first three indicates the photographic and experiental ideals of the backpackers, and the fourth underlines the norms of the backpacking culture through narratives on the deviants.