From Travel Photography to Photography Travel: Exploring the Well‐Being of Female Travelers as Subjects of the Tourist Gaze

ABSTRACT

This study explores the emerging niche of photography travel, where women deliberately position themselves as subjects of the tourist gaze and professional travel photography. Drawing on an interpretivist paradigm and employing abductive reasoning within a qualitative longitudinal design, this research engaged 11 female travelers to examine how photography travel shapes their well‐being across the pre‐travel, during‐travel, and post‐travel phases. Guided by Seligman's PERMA framework as a sensitizing concept, the findings reveal a transformative process in which participants evolve from “being invisible” to “being visible,” with the five elements of well‐being (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) manifesting differently across the travel stages. Photography travel thus emerges as a gendered and performative form of special interest tourism that enhances both hedonic and eudaimonic well‐being, offering new insights into the relationship between self‐representation, empowerment, and well‐being in women's travel experiences.