13 September

Travel! Say you like somebody, in a desiring sort of way. And you had the choice of standing next to them and taking a photo, or a personal letter from them. Which would you choose? The letter, of course. It gives you access to more of them, who they are, what they think, how they feel. Going to the Eiffel Tower won't bring you any closer to Paris, or France, or French culture. Being French is a dynamic ongoing process of living in a place. 'Paris' is what emerges from that ongoing process, every day. There's not one way in which physically being there brings you any closer to anything, just as you could have 100 selfies with Beyonce and still not know a thing about her or register in her life at all. In fact it's even worse, because as a tourist you'll be cocooned into tourist zones, to minimise impact on the locals. You'll be even further from the 'real Paris' than if you stayed home and read a book about it. You can't get around this, locations are not just places on a map. You could live there, but then you're not a traveller. The main function of travel is to show other people, that you travelled. As in shots like these. The focus of attention isn't yourself, it's other people. It's a self-referential loop, where people travel because other people travel, who show other people that they travelled...and around it goes.