Copyright 2008 Derek von Essen

The Tour Bus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 2008

Isabella Egan Gallery, Vancouver, BC
September 25 - October 14, 2008

The Tour Bus photo exhibition by Derek von Essen recreates a new travel experience from old memories. During his self-guided travels abroad he inevitably encountered camera-laden tour groups vying for similar vantage points. However, preferring his scenery with little or no visible people forced von Essen to wait patiently for the perfect moment to shoot his own photos. Upon returning home he found the tourist-free images gave him an impression of the location but didn’Äôt always support the memory he had of the experience. The missing element was the tourists.

The Tour Bus photographs were created with miniature dioramas, including the tourists, their iconic tour bus and von Essen's original photo prints as a backdrop. With their body language and positioning, his small-scale tourists allude to personal interactions or dramas which may unfold. The photo backdrops are not popular tourist destinations but unusual places like mundane street corners in dodgy areas. While the sightseers are themselves visual consumers, the photographer is now a spectator, almost a voyeur -- after the fact and with a souvenir of his travel history.