From the photography OF the hotel to the photography FOR the hotel

The world of travel has always been linked with the one of photography. Even before the smartphones, who had not a camera, a compact, a disposable or a reflex one for experts, to take pictures of the places visited in a holiday? Pictures have ever been the most precious souvenir.

“But that iconic swag has changed its purpose. It is not anymore the visual certification of the actual consumption of reached, discovered, unknown places. It is the verification, through images, of the expectations of places already seen and consumed in a picture. The trip will be satisfying if the place will correspond to the one we have already seen. From the souvenir to the prevenir” writes the Italian journalist Michele Smargiassi in the article “From souvenir to prevenir. Photography and Travel”, published in his blog on the magazine Repubblica on the 14th July 2017. “[…] But this way the travel changes its essence. It becomes, as Marc Augé states ‘similar to an inspection: in order not to be disappointing, the reality has to look like its image’. Question is, would that be possible nowadays,when images edited with digital programs are far more attractive than the reality? A new kind of disappointment lies in ambush: not the one coming from the unknown, but the one that betrays the already known”.

Reading the words of Smargiassi, let me think about the opportunity of a change in the role of the hotel photography, in order to keep alive its essence and not losing its potential: moving from a static approach of the photography OF the hotel to a more dynamic approach of the photography FOR the hotel.

Change is the essence of evolution; each hotel has a story to tell, and each dimension is changing together with its history.

Rate plans, offers and proposals change, new texts for the brochures substitute the old ones that are not describing the hotel anymore, the web site is updated, the staff follows its turnover … nevertheless, often, new professional images are taken only when the decoration is renewed or there is a new spa to show.

Pictures are a way to tell our own story, through them the hotel expresses its own approach to hospitality. A picture can touch heartstrings and emotions, bypassing our rational dimension and is a privileged channel to describe the uniqueness of a property and its own personal welcoming style.

Of course, we need the standard images of the rooms, the restaurant, the dishes on the menu and the swimming pool … as we said, we want to see where we are going to spend our stay.

But using the photography just for this purpose is like sailing within few miles from the harbour. We just use one of the shades that photography has to offer. But on a sailing boat, we can discover new coastlines and sail towards the ocean.

With images we can tell the backstage of the creation of a new dish, the arrival of a new colleague, the welcome back of a repeat guest, the warmth of an atmosphere. In the description of the dynamic dimension of becoming, the images express their precious potential.

If we want that the images become a language used to tell the story of the hotel, their periodic realization has to be considered in the plan of the marketing activities. The photography has to play its dynamic role, and the pictures have to be thought and shot according to the message that we want to communicate to the guests, in the same way we think and write the new text of a newsletter.

This way the images, would they be on the website, on the social media or in a newsletter, express a significant contribution to write the story of the hotel.

 

Photo credits: Stefano Butturini