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.

Interview with Robert E. Jackson, Photo Collector

A Fluid and Expressive Medium: Interview with Robert E. Jackson
by Michelle Hauser of the Design Observer

In recent years, a new breed of photographer has emerged: the camera-less photographer. This new generation — many of whom self-identify as collectors — has reinvented the process once again: theirs is a practice which might be best characterized as hunting, appropriating and editing to obtain a certain kind of image. Such idiosyncratic makers/collectors have evolved as a sub-genre within the ranks of the amateur, whose collective output has spawned a revolution in the creation of a kind of new, tactile imagery. Without fanfare and well beyond the purview of what most people believe constitutes an artist, this new pioneering practice creates from an already existing body of work.

Excerpt:

MH: Do you ever feel like you are collaborating with whoever took the snapshot, or is it yours now entirely?

REJ: These snapshots now exist in my collection without the weight of any of the narrative import that accompanied the taking of the photo. I am interested in the formal aesthetic qualities of the photo and have no interest in trying to place when and where it was taken. Or what the photo meant to express or record. What is important now is what it means to me and how it might fit within a larger typological framework.

Full interview here
12 image slide show here

I Love That Photo

ILOVETHATPHOTO is an online photography magazine

What moves independent photographers? What inspires them? What influences them? What does photography mean to them?ILOVETHATPHOTO tries to seek answers to these questions and shows the best work of independent photographers. We give photographers the opportunity to display their work on our site. This comes with a short interview and information about the photographer.

short interview about the Past Pictures website on ILOVETHATPHOTO