Until recently, webcams and their implications for tourism research and practitioners have been overlooked in tourism. However, recent publications (Jarratt, 2020a, 2020b) started to theorize webcams as windows into distant worlds, whose unedited gaze requires no further interpretation. Referring to the concept of transparency (Flyverbom et al., 2015; Flyverbom, 2019; van Woerkum & Aarts, 2009) and canons of use (Ledin & Machin, 2019), this reserach offers an alternative concept of webcams as a prism with historical, material and social roots in surveillance and transparency narratives. Acknowledging webcams as artefacts formed by historical, social and material context offers opportunities and uncovers hurdles for researchers and practitioners. First, researchers must consider the circumstances of production when critically assessing webcam and their content. Second, practitioners can leverage (and maintain) the narratives of truthfulness and facticity for building trust and authenticity if they are aware of the fragile, constructed nature of the webcam images.