Travel photography is a genre of photography that may involve the documentation of an area's landscape, people, cultures, customs, and history. The Photographic Society of America defines a travel photo as an image that expresses the feeling of a time and place, portrays a land, its people, or a culture in its natural state, and has no geographical limitations.[1] Travel photography sits at the intersection of ethnography, tourism, Orientalism, and documentary practice.[2] As a genre, it remains one of the most open in terms of the subjects it covers. Many travel photographers specialize in particular approaches—such as travel portraiture, landscape, or documentary work—while others capture all aspects of travel experience. Much of today’s visual style derives from the early work published in magazines such as National Geographic, with photographers like Steve McCurry shaping its popular aesthetic. The practice often entails working under varied and unpredictable conditions—indoors with low light, outdoors with shifting ambient light, or on the street where encounters may be fleeting or uncertain—seeking to capture both the atmosphere of place and the transitory “magic” of light.
As travel has become more accessible, the genre has increasingly opened up to both amateurs and professionals. Amateur travel photography is often shared through sites like Flickr, 500px, and 1x. Travel photography, unlike other genres such as fashion, product, or food photography, remains relatively less monetized, though the challenges faced by travel photographers are often greater than in controlled studio conditions. Traditionally, travel photographers earned money through stock photography, magazine assignments, and commercial projects. In recent years, however, the stock photography market has declined, leading many photographers to pursue alternative sources of income such as blogging, public speaking, commercial collaborations, and teaching.
Consumers of travel photography
Besides the travel publications like National Geographic Traveler, Conde Nast Traveler, etc., the demand for this genre exists in industries like Travel, Photo Education, etc. Many travel photographers today are leading photo-tours through companies, utilizing their knowledge of unique travel locations, experience of working as professional photographers and using this to help travel enthusiasts take great travel images during their trips. Many others are doubling up as educators in the field of ambient light photography. Some of them are doing assignments which intrinsically use their strengths, e.g. shooting exteriors or interiors of buildings for architects and interior designers. Photographers like Steve McCurry are often commissioned to shoot commercial advertising work using their skills from travel and documentary photograph.
Travel photography in its early origins arose in the mid-19th century, when photographers such as Maxime Du Camp and Felice Beato traveled beyond Europe to create documentation of foreign places, peoples, and monuments for audiences back home. Du Camp’s expedition to Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, and Syria in 1849–1851 produced Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie (1852), one of the first books illustrated with photographs, setting a precedent for travel photography.[3][4] Meanwhile, Beato, by travelling to places such as the Crimea, India during the Indian Mutiny, China during the Opium Wars, and later to Japan, combined landscape, architecture, portraiture, and ethnographic studies, often hand-coloring prints and creating albums that catered to Western curiosity about distant places.[5] Many early travel photographs were shaped by an Orientalist perspective, presenting colonized or “exotic” regions through a Western lens that reinforced imperial and cultural hierarchies, a view later critiqued by scholars such as Edward Said.[6]
Expansion and commercialization (1860s–1890s)
The advance of photographic technology in the second half of the 19th century resulted in the expansion travel photography alongside the growth of tourism, colonial exploration, as well as the use as illustrations in publishing. The introduction of the wet collodion process and later the dry plate made cameras more portable and exposure times shorter, which allowed photographers to document increasingly remote locations. Photographers such as Francis Bedford and James Ricalton exemplified this period’s range, from Bedford’s royal commission to document the 1862 tour of the Middle East, to Ricalton’s extensive travels across Asia and Africa in the service of education and publishing. Firms such as Alinari in Italy and Francis Frith & Co. in England commercialized travel imagery through postcards and stereographs, making views of ancient ruins, picturesque landscapes, and distant cultures accessible to a growing middle-class audience.[7][8] By the late 1800s, travel photography had become both an artistic and commercial enterprise, reflecting contemporary interests in geography, anthropology, and aesthetics, while continuing to shape Western perceptions of the wider world.
Recognition and Awards
There are a large number of travel awards which give recognition to outstanding travel photographers as well as access to vetted travel photographs.
Travel magazines have played an important role in the development and popularization of travel photography, providing a resource for travelers as well as a platform for both established and emerging photographers.
Travel + Leisure – Combines travel reportage and lifestyle photography.
Lonely Planet Traveller – A travel magazine focused on documentary-style photography and travel guides. It ceased publication in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 on demand and sales.[9]
Bendavid-Val, Leah (2008). National Geographic: The Photographs. National Geographic. ISBN9781426202919. – A comprehensive collection of iconic travel and documentary photographs from National Geographic photographers worldwide.
McCurry, Steve (2017). Steve McCurry: The Iconic Photographs. Phaidon Press. ISBN9780714865133. – Features McCurry's renowned travel and portrait photography, including his famous Afghan Girl image.
Salgado, Sebastião (2000). Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture. ISBN9780893818913. – A large-scale photographic essay documenting human migration and labor across the globe, blending travel and social documentary photography.
Jemil, Nori (2021). The Travel Photographer’s Way: Practical Steps to Taking Unforgettable Travel Photos. Bradt Guides. ISBN ISBN9781784778507.
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