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
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: