Capturing connections
Interrail photography and youth encounters, 1972–1993
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10248981 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mikko Manka (0000-0002-9847-1964, Tampere University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 111-134 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Transport History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5266 • E-ISSN: 1759-3999 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00225266261419450 |
| OpenAlex | W7130676866 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
This article analyses nearly 500 amateur photographs taken by Finnish and Swedish Interrail travellers between 1972 and 1993, using them as primary sources to examine how social encounters were visually performed and remembered on an Interrail trip. The photographs show that travellers often turned their cameras towards people, constructing interpersonal connections through photography of encounters. The analysis identifies three recurring visual themes: encounters in transit, food and drink encounters and posed encounters in diverse European settings. These images were not merely commemorative; the act of photographing shaped the travel experience and contributed to a shared sense of youth community. The study argues that photography was a performative tool that helped to define the Interrail trip as a transnational youth space. By focusing on visual encounters, the article contributes to the cultural history of transport, showing how mobile amateur photography constructed meanings of Interrail across Cold War borders
Amateur · Performative utterance · Photography · Photojournalism · Visual culture · Visual methods · Autobiographical and Biographical Writing · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Photography and Visual Culture
Place
The Tourist Gaze 3.0
Development of european consciousness in Erasmus students
Youth Tourism as Appropriation of the World
Interrail youth travel (re)producing communities of belonging – memories of Finnish travellers 1972–1991
Picture Me As a Young Woman”
Reading Irish Women's Lives in Photograph Albums
Negotiating place through food and drink
Where and when was Europe? Europeanness and its relationship to migration
Creating informal European integration by travelling? Swedish and Finnish travel reminiscences of Interrail travel 1972–1993
Streetcars of desire
Stranger-local interaction in photography
Photography and transport history
No Coming Back to Sick Society
Families Seen Sightseeing
A multisensory phenomenology of interrail mobilities
Photography and travel brochures
Tourist Photography and the Reverse Gaze
How Strangers Initiate Conversations
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |