Reading White Sands by Geoff Dyer. Engaging writing reflecting on why we travel and the lure of elsewhere, an elsewhere that does not always live up to expectations. It includes and excellent short essay (pp 99-101) on ‘sites’, especially the sites of crimes, how they come into being and the importance of photography. Dyer argues that ’90 percent of the pictures now being taken are pointless’, but some are exemplary. Unremarkable places are transformed into sites of significance by the events that have taken place there and this is reinforced and memorialised through photography. In such places ‘people don’t take pictures in order to have a picture; they take pictures because that is what you do’. Dyer believes that a ‘picture might be pointless; the act of taking it is not’.
Photo: Koh Tao 2014, Chaiwat Subprasom