vernacular photography – snapshot style, amateur footage

old camera snapshot, modern mobile phone snapshot , current photographer aesthetic, snapshot aesthetic can be adopted by prof artists

How does vernacular photography, supported by the mainstream production of kodak, present an idealised perspective on moments – draft question

How is vernacular photography, supported by the mainstream production of kodak, an overlooked artistic style – draft question

How has snapshot photography developed from its origin in Victorian times to our digital age?

references: student films, numb by liv mcneil, sadie withers pd11, erik kessels, nan goldin – mark in the red car, cookie w max in hammock, dieten and wolfgang at the O bar, nan and brian in bed,

photographers snapshot aesthetic

Women photographers and the ‘snapshot aesthetic’7

Snapshot aesthetic

intro what why how

Essay Plan+

Opening quote:“I am a passionate lover of the snapshot, because of all photographic images it comes closest to truth […] The snapshooter’s […] pictures have an apparent disorder and imperfection, which is exactly their appeal and their style. The picture isn’t straight. It isn’t done well. It isn’t composed. It isn’t thought out. And out of this imbalance, and out of this not knowing, and out of this real innocence toward the medium comes an enormous vitality and expression of life.” —Lisette Model

Introduction: Introduce subject of essay Explain why interest came from, begun from student films for my own film

Pg 1: historical context
Discuss origin of snapshot aesthetic in Victorian times alongside technological invention of camera technology / Kodak box camera etc. Also comment on photography becoming more affordable for professional/ middle classes. Read key text and select appropriate quotes
Select a key image from Victorian period and analyse in more depth, in terms of its subject-matter, technical aspects, composition and interpret how this image may comment on the economic growth and prosperity of the middle classes who could afford to buy a camera and begin to depict their own lives. Photograph themselves on holiday, enjoyment in leisure time showed modernity, time off work and changes in society – building photography in modern form

Pg 2: How snapshot became an aesthetic style – art. Discuss how photographers such as Nan Goldin adopted the snapshot aesthetic in her work – the sexual dependency book. What the aesthetic is and its meaning, the look, following an amateur approach. Analyse image from the book, same aspects as earlier. Look at interviews from her and quotes.

Pg3: Digital age of snapshot aesthetic, accessibility of camera (mobile phones) and share easily online, with subject matter changing to more everyday, uneventful things. Link back to change in earlier era.

Conclusion:

From Two Metres

To start with my time-lapse, i imported all the individual videos, rendered them and began cutting them down to one second increments each, with all the audios unlinked and removed

I then cut them all down to half a second as i thought the quicker pace fit better, and used the other half of clips to insert in other places just so i had a bit more footage to lengthen it. i also made sure to cut the moving clips, i used three events with around 5 clips for each, one leaning over to pick up and look at my phone and another towards the laptop, and the then at the end slowly covering my face

I then finished cutting them all and sequenced them together, rendering often, and made sure they were all the same length to keep the pace, except from the last clips in the leaning forward movement, slowly extending them to slow down the pace

I then saved the initial time-lapse (just the bare sequence) and imported it to another project page. I then imported a selection of archived videos i had taken in the summer, and layered these above the time-lapse sequence. These were cut to appropriate lengths, keeping their original sound, and sequenced and rendered behind the time-lapse video. I then minimised the time-lapse video to be smaller in the centre of the frame.

Once layering the archived videos in the background, i thought the time-lapse speed didn’t match up right and was not quick enough, so i set the speed duration to higher so that i could easily decrease the duration each scene was shown – with the background videos at their normal speed.

I then began cutting the smaller centre video every few seconds and enlarging it slightly so that as the video got darker, it enlarged over the screen, until eventually it covered the whole screen in its end scene, which i began to enlarge more frequently in the last slower movements.

With the last much longer scene, i extended the last archived videos audio, which has the sound of wind and waves, and pulled it to cover over the whole last clip.

I then added the background music to run underneath the whole sequence, and went back over each archived videos audio and reduced them so that they weren’t overpowering the music.

Finally i added a fading transition to the video and background audio clip, extending the audio to end after the video footage

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SHOOT PLAN

WHAT: The plan for this shoot is to photograph different shots as my dad and I work on my classic mini. We will be working on the wheels and brakes so I will try get various angles working on the car.

WHERE/WHEN: The daytime would be best as I can use natural light but the evening would also work as I can bring a light with me. The car is currently kept at a friends garage not far from my house so that is where I will take the photos

EQUIPMENT: I will use my Sony a73 camera and my 35mm 1.4 lens and my 50mm 1.8 lens. I like using prime lenses as they often have a wide aperture which is good for low light conditions. I will use my godox sl60 constant light to light the images. I may use a tripod for some self portrait images.

CONTACT SHEET

This shoot went very well I spent a lot of time getting a lighting set up that I liked. I settled for using my godox SL60w as the main key light then a tungsten workshop light as the backlight. I was happy with the outcomes of the images as they have a lot of contrast and colour. I used a wide aperture of f1.4 – f2 for the most part because it was still quite dark.

BEST IMAGES

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EDITING

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