Picturing "The Other"

A tourist dives off a dock in Key West, Fla. during sunset in August 2010.

That same tourist then joined his friends to watch the sunset.

I took these photos while I was on vacation in Key West, Fla. celebrating the end on my internship with The Miami Herald. I chose to "work" while on vacation because it had been a long time since I had taken photos for myself and not on assignment.
My background as a multimedia journalist helped me compose these photographs and use them to tell a short story. It is very clear that the tourists were jumping off the dock to watch the sunset.
I decided to make the subjects silhouetted so I could properly expose the background. If I tried to keep the subjects lit, I would have needed a flash or to overexpose the background, losing the colors of the Key West sunset.

These same people might take a photograph of me on the dock, because I had multiple cameras with me and a tripod. I did not look like a tourist - I looked like I was working. When taking these pictures, multiple tourists, artists and other photographers approached me to talk about the pictures I was making.
"The Other" would definitely make the assumption that I was working. Their caption would most likely read, "Photographer takes photographs of sunset in Key West, Fla."

I think it is important to take in account the perception of your subject while taking photographs of them - even on vacation. Though I do this on a daily basis for work. It is best to "shoot first, ask questions later." The assumption must be taken into consideration when framing the photograph. I could have just taken a shot of tourists in the water without the sunset and they would not have nearly the purpose, or interest, than if I included the sunset.
A different way of representing "The Others" in this setting would be to ask them to pose for a photograph and let them choose how they wish to be perceived by letting them pose. This is not journalistic, but in this setting, it was not an assignment.