44 KRISTA A. THOMPSON

and in the development and post-development phase of production (64 qtd.
in Albers and James 137).
 A postcard module section focused on one of the most popular and
enduring photographs of the Bahamas, an image by Coonley entitled On the
Way to Market (1888-1904). The image features a black vendor posed with a
basket of turkeys on her head. The rare studio photograph offered a unique
glimpse of, and behind, the theatrical stage on which the island's touristic
image was performed. In other words, the image, to recall Hall, called
attention to the "active labor" of creating the island's touristic image.
Standing before the album in print, viewers could easily recreate the moment
of the photograph's production. In the image palm fronds, prerequisite props
in the recreation of a tropical island scene, look hurriedly and determinately
strewn across the background and floor of the photographer's studio. The
black woman also seems pulled into this makeshift fabricated world. A
reluctant inhabitant of the studio's landscape, she regards the photographer
with cool nonchalance, seemingly as indifferent to his presence as the turkeys
upon her head. In addition to the model and backdrop, the photograph
reveals the wider studio environment, including the window that Coonley
uses as a light source. The palm backdrop, Anderson's wooden pose, the
turkey props, and studio lighting all point to the various devices used to
construct the island's touristic image.
 While the early print leaves its photographic slip hanging (showing many
of the studio props used to create the image), subsequent postcard
reproductions of the image, also featured in the exhibition, erased or
downplayed these elements over time. In a version of the photograph
postmarked 1910, most of the details of the studio's interior, the Brechtian
backstage, were cropped out of the image. A subsequent reproduction of
the postcard dating from 1915-1930, focused even more squarely on the
vendor and her foul. The image creates the impression that the photograph
was shot outdoors in a tropical landscape rather than in a studio environment.
Interestingly, the back of the postcard gave credit to another photographer
altogether, James Sands, who likely purchased Coonley's glass plates when
he took over the New Yorker's studio in 1904. Sands further transformed the
image through hand painting. He added a light azure blue to the sky and
forest green to the palms, more faithfully representing the exterior landscape.
The sequence of images provided a visual time lapse, allowing visitors to
inspect the "naturalization" of the studio construction over time. Fittingly,
one sender of a version of the postcard scrawled across the back of the
representation: "This picture is natural," even though the different versions
of the On the Way to Market betrayed anything but their "naturalness." This
hand written appraisal of the image, dating from 1910, also appeared in the
module; casting a literal spotlight on the frequently blighted back of the
postcard and former interpretations of the image. The purchaser's
inscription, their insistence on the "naturalness" of the representation,