Daniel Yang | Postcards & Visual Culture: What they say about London, travel, and ourselves

Musings

Big Ben, 3am

Another postcard containing iconic symbols of London sights is Xavier Pick’s impressionistic painting “Big Ben, 3am,” which depicts a night scene of the Westminster area. In the foreground is a black cab with its headlights reflected on the, unsurprisingly, slick road. A silhouetted figure in front adds a human element giving this representation of the city life even in the early morning hours. In the background are the London Eye and Big Ben. Like the Tower Bridge photograph, this juxtaposition shows London as both a modern place and a historical place. However, a major difference between the two postcards is that the medium of impressionist painting has been freed from its obligation of depicting reality. Pick does not have to rely on meteorological phenomenon to add drama to his painting. Instead, he uses saturated colors; especially warm reds, oranges, and yellows. He also uses white highlights to draw attention to certain elements. The lamppost next to shadowy figure has no actual lamp so as not to distract from the London Eye, Big Ben, and the black cab. The perspective has also been compressed and the composition contrived to include these elements together in a neat triangular loop for the viewer’s eyes to trace.

Iconic symbols like the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, the London eye, and the black cab are useful in creating the mythology of London for tourists and even locals to consume. In his book Traveling Light: Photography, Travel and Visual Culture, Peter Osborne argues in an idea reminiscent of Jean Baudrillard’s simulacrum that tourist sights exist to be photographed and are photographed to attain existence:

In the realm of tourism, ‘the world [has become] the reproduction of its reproductions’ (Anders 1980: 113). The excitement at finally seeing a long-familiar attraction…comes from being like the pilgrim arriving at the origin of an image, the source of representation, the (Holy) Referent (Father). If this image has an origin, then there is truth in the world in general. ⁶

Developing and facilitating this reflexive relationship between the tourist and the tourist sight is the modern function of the postcard. The ironic thing is that even though tourists have a clear vision of what the sight they are visiting looks like from postcards and brochures, they feel obligated to take a snapshot of themselves in front of the sight to confirm through another image that they were in fact there. Then, they purchase postcards as souvenirs to proliferate the cycle, and because the professional photographer’s or painter’s vision of the sight is closer to the idealized “authentic” than their own renditions.

H.M. Elizabeth II

A unique attribute about the postcards in London is the depiction of certain people as the main subject. While other cities have the standard architectural icons, London also has its royalty. Paul Ratcliffe’s photograph of “H.M. Queen Elizabeth II” is a common sight on sidewalks along with photographs of other royal family members. The Queen in this postcard is not in royal ceremonial regalia, or in a formal portrait sitting like one would see in a palace or the National Gallery. Instead, the style is a paparazzi-like snapshot that is barely acceptably sharp with head-on flash lighting creating a harsh shadow on her clothes from the flowers she is holding. Ratcliffe’s photograph is referencing history and tradition by using the Queen as a subject, but in a modern context. It is the monarchy as celebrity instead of authority. Foreign tourists consuming these images have no allegiance to the Queen, but are interested in viewing the antiquated royal system as a living piece of history.

Routemaster Bus

History integrated in the modern day is a constant emphasis in popular London postcards. This is evident not only in examples of architecture and royalty. The postcard of the famous red double-decker Routemaster bus is another example of a representation unique to London. The bus’s bright red color makes it stand out on the congested streets of the city and alludes to the history of London as center of Empire. Red is the color of royal roads, the British military uniform, and the color used to demarcate British possessions on maps of the imperial age. The Routemasters themselves have a history stretching back to the 1950s ⁷ but are soon going to be phased out. After December 9, 2005, the postcard will become a historical representation showing what the buses of London used to look like compared to the modern red buses circling the city. Route 73 is also significant because this bus runs through well-known places that tourists are likely to encounter such as Kings Cross, Hyde Park, and Oxford Street. However, the bus is not the only form of transportation featured on London postcards, the Underground is equally prominent.

Piccadilly Circus

The postcard photograph of Piccadilly Circus by Robert Harding shows a famous London landmark with many modern symbols including the Underground as well as corporate logos. In the background are the logos of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Carlsberg, and Sanyo. This representation similar to Times Square in New York shows London as a commercial city. The major difference though is the scale of the commercialization. The billboards may be several stories tall and lit up but they do not encircle the entire scene. They are static logos bunched up in one corner and relatively easy to ignore. Harding has instead placed the London Underground logo in the foreground as the main subject. Though the Underground is partially privatized, it is a form of public transportation operated by Transport for London. The balance between private and public throughout London is represented in this postcard’s juxtaposition of logos. This postcard together with the one of the Routemaster and Big Ben with black cab also shows that transportation is a major issue on the minds of Londoners. The massive movement of people that travel into and out of London each day makes transportation an essential part of the London experience, and this is reflected in postcard representations of the city. Finally, the recurring theme of modern mixed with historical is again played out because the London Underground is the oldest underground train system, yet it is still running and is the world’s largest network ⁸ serving millions of people in today’s fast paced society.

All of the postcards thus far examined have been distributed by Kardorama and found on sidewalk racks in Central London. These postcards represent a certain perspective of London that is intended to be mainly consumed by foreign tourists. As Osborne writes, “postcards…stock the traveller’s visual combinatorium, picturing the world of tourism and its objects, establishing how they are to be seen, their desirability, the weight of their cultural meaning” ⁶. The mythology of London perpetuated in these postcards extends not only to tourists, but to Londoners as well. They reinforce that London is a great and vibrant city that is modern yet full of history. However, Londoners have additional postcard representations that inform their perspectives of the city. These postcards are not found on the streets of London but tucked away in less obvious places. They are also not produced by the same distributor that supplies the convenience store racks and tourist kiosks. Instead, they are issued by smaller companies or museums, which indicate smaller print runs and limited distribution. The first of these we will look at is another postcard containing the Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge Up Upper Pool of the Thames

Osborne, P. (2000). Travelling Light: Travel and Visual Culture. Manchester: Manchester UP.
The Story of the Routemaster. (2004). Routemaster Association. Retrieved December 2, 2005, from http://www.routemaster.org.uk/rmstory.htm.
London Undergound. (2005, December 2). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 3, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground.