Capturing connections: Interrail photography and youth encounters, 1972–1993

Abstract

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.