Front Street Birdcage

Bermuda Police Constable Stephen Denny is pictured inside what is known as the 'birdcage' on Front Street. When I stopped to ask him if his gestures were necessary for the management of Front Street traffic I expected him to reply in the affirmative, possibly defensively about the traffic managemnet purpose of his role. Though he said he does aid the traffic congestion, he explained his primary target audience is not local drivers but tourists, especially those off the cruise ships. His presence on the day a cruise ship had arrived was not coincidental and serves as an interesting example of the resilience of traditional symbols associated with tourism and how Bermuda continues to define its image and identity through a tourist-oriented and somewhat static and nostalgic gaze. This mechanism is however more complex and recursive than a simple imposition of a global force bearing on an idealised 'authentic' local culture, in the form of tourism on local consciousness. While domineering and homoginising in terms of the images of self this relationship tends to support, the tourist-gaze nonetheless plays a meaningul and nuanced role that cannot be easily understood.