Everest, Everestland, #Everest: A Case for a Composite Visual Ethnographic Approach

Arguably Mount Everest has always been mediatized: its appeal as an idea has existed in part through technologies of visual cultures. Exploring the digital media practices of tourists and the tourism workers, this article considers how imaginaries of Mount Everest that appear through technologies of visual culture relate to experiences of Everest in Nepal. I argue for a composite visual ethnographic approach that entails examining experiences on site in relation to cumulative media and visual texts, both historically and on digital media platforms. The article contributes to an anthropology of mobility through its focus on how digital visual communication becomes constitutive of work and practices in tourism.