Tacky Tourist Photos

SUBMITTED BY: Brandon Seppa    LOCATION: Red Square, Moscow, Russia (2009)
Despite having whimsical cupcake churches like St. Basil’s Cathedral near the Kremlin, our Russian-born sources swear that Moscow is the city that never smiles.
That doesn’t stop the exuberant Brandon from expressing his zest for life.
Twenty years ago, this kind of nonconformity may have earned [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Darren Garnick   LOCATION: Orlando, Florida  (2008)
Buzz Lightyear pulled a bait on switch on us, urging my son and me to flex our muscles and then pulling the Fonzie thumbs up pose (a timeless classic you can see duplicated here).
Superman flexes his biceps. So does Popeye and the Incredible Hulk.  But since when is [...]

A TACKY TOURIST EDITORIAL – By Ilya Mirman
I’m a huge music junkie and love capturing snippets of my concert experiences with photography.
Obviously, I’m not alone. Check out the sea of cameras at this recent Springsteen concert at Boston Garden:
So you might imagine how psyched I was to plan a visit to the Rock and Roll [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Robert Rizzo    LOCATION: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (2009)
If you take a piece of plywood, paint a goofy character — any character — cut a hole in the head and prop the wood up in the middle of the desert, within a half an hour, a busload of tourists will show up and [...]

Tourists do consume a lot of fried dough, candy apples and cotton candy.
But where is the scientific evidence that tourists are any more overweight than their non-vacationing peers?
If you are as outraged as we are about this hateful stereotype, please send a donation to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance in our name!
Or heck, [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Kerry Byrne   LOCATION: Damariscotta, Maine (2009)
Shocker: Sex sells. Even at a Rated-G agricultural fair.
The 1999 and 2007 World Champion Pumpkin Chunkers have been marketing their amazing pumpkin cannon with this slogan for a while — and they’re making a killing on t-shirts.
Imagine the other products they could introduce under the brand…
(Kerry [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Jason & Rachel Cole   LOCATION: Dyersville, Iowa (2009)
It would be awesome if the official “Field of Dreams” baseball field had ballplayers dressed as the disgraced 1919 Chicago White Sox, whom tourists could either gamble with or play Whiffleball with.
But you and your imagination are on your own when you tread on [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Laura Molta   LOCATION: Madrid, Spain (2009)
There are several deeply troubling aspects to this seemingly innocent tourist photo.
First is the cavalier attitude and body posture of the tourist: LOOK AT ME! I AM LEANING UP AGAINST AN AUTHENTIC BLUE-COLLAR WORKER!
What’s with the casual knee bend?
Second, this alleged tribute to an [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Laura Molta    LOCATION: Barcelona, Spain (2009)
Fashion knows no boundaries.
Not really the kind of guys to hang out at a bullfight, these tourists fantasize about owning an authentic Louis Vuitton bag.
Quite frankly, we don’t even know what an authentic Louis Vuitton bag looks like. For all we know, the tan [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Laura Molta   LOCATION: Madrid, Spain (2009)
Tourists in Madrid can now pose with this rather unimposing generic matador.
We’d be more impressed if city officials paid tribute to the Greatest Bullfighter of All Time.
Bugs Bunny.

SUBMITTED BY: Betsy Hoffman   LOCATION: Barcelona, Spain (2009)
Looks like a flamboyant gekko, but this costumed character is actually a touchy-feely dragon.
It’s the Gaudi Dragon, Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi’s iconic mosiac fountain in Barcelona’s whimsical Parc Guell.
According to Wikipedia, British author George Orwell reportedly hated Gaudi’s work — and what motivation could anyone possibly have [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Laura Molta   LOCATION: Madrid, Spain (2009)
The tentacles of the Disney legal department infamously have no boundaries, so it was shocking to see this rogue Winnie the Pooh operating so brazenly in the open.
We respect the rights of mascots to have oxygen, but the extremely large eye holes (filled with emptiness) make [...]

Looks like we’ll have to cancel those last minute reservations for Venus.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourist shuttle was aiming to have passengers floating in the aisles by 2007.  Now, venture capitalist Alan Walton tells the Associated Press he wants his $200,000 ticket deposit back if he can’t be flying first class before his 74th [...]

SUBMITTED BY: Brian Henderson LOCATION: Uganda (2006)
Photojournalist Brian Henderson was in the region “raising awareness,” as he puts it, for the Batwa Pygmies.
But he also found time to raise awareness about the Equator, the often-celebrated-but-misunderstood imaginary line at zero degrees latitude.
We’re just thrilled that we can now fill in Uganda on our World Domination Map!
(Brian [...]