The consumed image. Evolution of the tourist postcard of the Taoro valley in Tenerife and its landscape variants in the digital era.

Abstract

The postcard differs from the written letter in that it is not contained, it is itself franked and is a vehicle for both graphic and written information. Among its graphic contents, of interest is that which, being a postal instrument, exports the image of a landscape for commercial-advertising purposes, which in the long run has repercussions on the retina and returns as visits to that place, generating tourist income for those visits. From an image constructed pictorially or elaborated photographically, this instrument of export of the image arrives to our days adapted by the new technologies of communication. From an image accompanied by text, we have gone on to different digital manifestations that, for the most part, do not cease to delve into all the possibilities and nuances that the original postcard acquires. Currently, the Instagram app is probably the most powerful social network based on the consumption of images, and its extensive use of content includes those captures where the landscape itself becomes a product of consumption, export and even manipulation, and merchandise. Photos are taken with the same landscape in the background, stereotyping it, and potentially generating profits for the "Likes" it obtains. The image does not change, but the scale of the impact and the beneficiary does, even coexisting with manifestations that vary from the contribution to the construction of a fictitiously natural landscape, with which they exalt the value of the environment and its ecological qualities. 41 The objective of this work is to study the narrative and technical evolution, as well as the means and communicative support of the rural, landscape and traditional image of the Taoro Valley, communicated through tourist postcards and their digital derivatives. For this study, a historical and descriptive research methodology will be used, as well as a bibliographic review and images limited to the period and element in question. A review limited to the specific case of the Taoro valley, will help us to glimpse the footprint left in the postal images, and allow us to study the background and cases of the image produced for a commercial purpose of tourism use. It will also help to define a classification of the concept of tourist postcard, providing arguments for understanding this phenomenon and proposing possible new ways to manage its use.