The Armchair Tourist Giving back with things you probably have around the house Text and Photos by Joy Underhill
If you’re like me, you may have found yourself wondering if there was some way to make lemonade from the lemon called COVID-19. Here I was, sitting on a mountain of photos from trips I had taken. My usual outlet – doing travelogues at local libraries – was no longer an option. But was there another way to share...? That’s when I hit upon the idea of the Armchair Tourist. The term originated from that classic children’s book, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” where the protagonist sits in his chair reading about penguins in “National Geographic” and ends up hosting a bevy of them in his living room. Rather than creating a video of my traditional PowerPoint slides, I decided to develop photo collages, each of which captured one aspect of the trip. For instance, in the Australia series, I covered Sydney and Melbourne for a day or two, then focused on interesting animals and plant life, hikes, and the Great Barrier Reef. Likewise, when the Armchair Tourist visited Cape Cod, I created separate collages for birds, black-and-white images, and beach time. This was the hardest part of doing the collages: deciding on the theme of the day. I typically planned these out well in advance, using the top 100 shots from any major trip. Longer trips (two or more weeks) earned 10 collages; shorter ones, just five.
Figure 1. Join Joy as she travels the world, sharing images from her adventures! 15
