Class tourism and photography: The typological portraits of EO Hoppe and J.D. Beresford.

This paper examined the collaboration between the society portraitist EO Hoppe and the novelist JD Beresford that resulted in 'Taken from Life' (1922). Here this volume is situated within its authors' respective careers and considered within the broader discourses of class differentiation and Social Darwinism active in Britain in the 1920s. I argue that 'Taken from Life' is permeated by a superficially benign, but ultimately paternalistic 'class tourism', a form of voyeurism that derives from its uneasy combination of sociological speculation with both anecdote and fiction. This paper also argued the contemporary relevance of the 'class tourism' category, pointing to accusations made against contemporary photographer, Martin Parr as well as websites such as 'People of Walmart'.