Manufacturing National Park Nature: Photography, Ecology, and the Wilderness Industry of Jasper
J. Keri Cronin
Jasper National Park is an international travel destination, world heritage site, and icon of Canadian identity. Although national parks occupy a prominent place in the Canadian imagination, we are only beginning to understand how their visual imagery has shaped and continues to inform our perception of the natural world, ecological issues, and ourselves.
In Manufacturing National Park Nature, J. Keri Cronin draws on visual images such as postcards and tourist snapshots to show that popular forms of picturing nature can have ecological implications that extend far beyond the frame of the image. Adopting an ecocritical approach to visual culture, she reveals that packaging Jasper as a series of breathtaking vistas and adorable-looking animals masks the real threats to the park’s ecosystems. In telling the story of how various groups have used photography to shape our ideas about nature, this book sets the stage for a re-examination of protection policies and acknowledgment of environmental damage in national parks.
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About J. Keri Cronin
Reviews for Manufacturing National Park Nature: Photography, Ecology, and the Wilderness Industry of Jasper
Philip M. Mullins, University of Northern British Columbia
International Journal of Wilderness, Vol 18, No 1
This book is specifically about Jasper National Park, yet its theoretical discussions, analyses, and conclusions can be applied broadly to visual representations in any managed, “wild” area...this text is a valuable contribution to the growing field of visual-culture-based ecological criticism.
Gaby Zezulka-Maillqux, Abu Dhabi University
The Goose, Issue 10, 2012
The book is brief, and lavishly illustrated…it makes a real contribution to the literature by analyzing the cultural and physical impacts of tourism in an iconic environment…the author has deftly woven together a convoluted web of images and ideologies, uniquely focused on one location. This work will appeal to readers interested in parks, tourism and leisure, in cultural concepts of landscape, and in the management of wilderness areas… while it engages deeply with theoretical issues, Manufacturing National Park Nature is highly comprehensible, and appropriate for any intelligent, interested reader.
Fred Mason, University of New Brunswick
Electronic Green Journal, Issue 34, Winter 2012