Images of beauty and family. Contemporary imagery at the aquatic park Aquafan

This chapter reports on visual research conducted at Aquafan, one of the most important Italian aquatic parks and considered to be one of the favourite leisure and travel des- tination by young people and families. According to the sociological and anthropological traditions, Aquafan can be considered as a privileged point of observation of social dynamics, in which individuals experience different forms of life – such as beauty, family, friendship, aesthetics, etc. – which structure identity and the ways that functionalize them for being useful to other spheres of life. This research will use sociological analysis in understanding Aquafan as a place devoted to leisure time, a destination of summer tourism and as one of the tourist places occupying a privileged position in the evolution of Italian mass tourism. More precisely, this study demonstrates: (i) modes through which individuals and soc- ial groups find opportunities to test complex identity processes; and (ii) that new collective representations suitable for modernity and its communicational trends can be built.