The Importance of Site Familiarity to Landscape Photographic Assessments

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of familiarity on the rating of 28 black and white photographs of landscape scenes from the Old Mission Peninsula, Traverse City, Michigan. Respondents were asked to rate 24 of the 28 scenes on two criteria: scenic beauty and likelihood to visit. Four other scenes were rated for representativeness. Results of the study show that there is a powerful correlation between the rating of scenic beauty and the likelihood of visiting a place. The data also indicates that pictorial captions initially result in higher ratings of scenic beauty. Site visitation to an area will result in the elevation of some photograph ratings while others remain unchanged or lowered.