Vernacular photography is the creation of photographs, usually by amateur or unknown photographers both professional and amateur, who take everyday life and common things as subjects. This type of photography links to my project as I am focusing on capturing very natural everyday life images of my friends and different types of people. I like the idea of making my photographs very relate-able and realistic, I don’t like very staged photographs. These types of photographs relate to documentary photography as they document everyday life/what my life is like. I think it is important for the photographer to have that personal connection with their photographs, therefore, doing something that portrays your life with your friends/what type of people are in the society that you live in are like. Vernacular photography allows the photographer to spontaneously take photographs whenever they feel.
This also relates to the theme of family as family portraits can be categorized as Vernacular photography as they are pictures of people you generally with most of your time and love. They can be everyday images or just annual things. Vivian Maier is a photographer who did a project focusing on Vernacular photography, her images are all in black and white and are simplistic yet still effective. This has inspired me to experiment with black and white vernacular photography. I want to experiment with different types of photography to see which one best fits with my project.