Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Ephemeral Camera


#18 via lesphotographes.com

Words and Photos:

Geoffrey Batchen’s Writing About Vernacular Photography


Inteview excerpt: I suggest in my writing that any substantial inclusion of vernacular photographs into a general history of photography will require a total transformation of the character of that history; it will require a new kind of history altogether....
This history, dominated by the values and tropes of art history, was not well equipped to talk about photographs that were overtly commercial, hybrid and banal. In other words, the history of photography left out most types of photograph. So my interest became a more methodological and theoretical one, in an effort to forge a new way of thinking about photography that could address the medium in its entirety.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

#16 Some Party via Unexpected Tales
from a Flickr set titled Peculiar Snapshots

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

#15 via What You See
a book of snapshots from the collection of Luciano Rigolini
published by Lars Muller

Rigolini is interested above all in snapshots in which, consciously or unconsciously, form and structure move into the foreground, so that the specific pictorial content becomes secondary. In his cleverly arranged sequences, the photographs can no longer be read merely as reproductions of reality. They turn out to be artifacts that construct reality.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

from the past exhibit "America and the Tintype"
of which there is a fine book available (on sale)...

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

#13 via A Sound Awareness

from the book "The Haunted Air" - a collection of anonymous photographs from Ossian Brown and published by Jonathan Cape. As far as I know, only available from the U.K. - Thematic books of vintage vernacular photographs are rarely this well done and the breadth of strangeness contained in this extraordinary collection of costumed Halloween spirits displays the tradition wonderfully.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

#12 via Look At Me (598)

LOOK AT ME
is a collection of found photos.

from the about page of "Look At Me":

These photos were either lost, forgotten, or thrown away. The images now are nameless, without connection to the people they show, or the photographer who took them. Maybe someone died and a relative threw away their photographs; maybe someone thought they were trash.

Some of the photos were found on the street. Some were stacked in a box, bought cheap at a flea market. Showing off or embarrassed, smug, sometimes happy, the people in these photos are strangers to us. They can't help but be interesting, as stories with only an introduction.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

# 10 via House of Mirth
from a selection of early Kodachrome snapshots

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

# 8 via The Boat Lullabies
one of many lovely anonymous snapshots in the slideshow from the wonderful
Square America photo essay "A Brief Essay on Love"

Friday, February 11, 2011

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

# 6 - A Ritzy Bird House, 1930 via Anonymous Works

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

#5 "Girls I Have Known" by Daniel Rochford via metmuseum.org

The invention and mass marketing of Kodak cameras in the late 1880s transformed photography into an everyday activity. By the turn of the century, amateurs everywhere were filling album pages with the fruits of their own labors. from: Kodak and the Rise of Amateur Photography - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History - Metropolitan Museum of Art


Thursday, February 3, 2011

Ephemeral Camera


#4 "Clyde " via whatsthatpicture
beginning a new series of found vernacular and anonymous photos,
randomly chosen from cited sources... enjoy

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

beginning a new series of found vernacular and ephemeral photos,
randomly chosen from cited sources... enjoy

Monday, January 31, 2011

Ephemeral Camera

#1 via Unexpected Tales

beginning a new series of found vernacular and ephemeral photos,
randomly chosen from cited sources... enjoy


Sunday, January 23, 2011

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Robert E. Jackson on the Double Exposure




A selection and essay on the accidental double exposure snapshot
at House of Mirth

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Excerpts From The Annals of Everyday Life (The Square America Snapshot Archive)






The urge to see as many fascinating images as possible has always been a driving force for me. Since being exposed to the history of photography, the relentlessness of the visual is practically primal. I once believed (long ago) that I must have looked at more pictures than anyone alive... it goes without saying that any pretense toward measuring or imagining such a feat is no longer even remotely possible. However, at this point, there is no denying that one could go blind trying.
Since recently beginning this blog, I've deliberated over what to post: articles, guest contributions, just photos, links, historical references ??? While coming to no conclusion and with a tendency toward of all of the above, I'm beginning the New Year with just a few excerpts from Square America... As far as I can tell, the hands down champion at representing the vast source of found vernacular photography in all of its glory...
From the links to these images can be found an endless road, a circle, a river, patterns and cross references that could be suitable to whatever journey you might want to set out on.... This particular section of Square America is dedicated to
"A few notes towards a complete account, rendered in photographs, of everything that has ever happened." - the added enjoyment of following a vast array of tags and date links as per whim or design doubles the fun of exploring this amazing snapshot archive.... these images are the first I came across tonight, and by no means are my favorites. I'm saving those for next time.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Cutout Arcade Photo, 1935

from Too Cute Studio....

Monday, January 3, 2011