The Distorted Gaze? Travel Photo Editing in the Social Media Era

Abstract

Photo editing has emerged as a common practice among tourists when documenting experiences and sharing photos on social media. Examining this understudied phenomenon, the following study explores the motivations behind travelers’ photo-editing behavior and their perceptions on authenticity. Qualitative research methods were utilized, including 23 semi-structured interviews with a photo elicitation method and two focus groups for data triangulation. The results revealed that people edit travel photos to enhance the photo presentation, self-presentation, social connection, and destination presentation. This study introduces the distorted gaze and advances the traditional tourist gaze framework. Through photo editing behavior, tourists interpret authenticity in various ways; authenticity becomes less critical than the travelers’ own visual pleasure, self-image management, and social conformity/compliments from their social media audience. This study investigated new perspectives on people’s travel photo editing behavior and a new form of tourist gaze in the social media era.