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

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.

Intro (First page of Say Cheese) – The term snapshot as a photographic medium has only been around for a century. The term defines something that is captured instantaneously, typically captured by an amateur and often candid and imperfect. However through time this idea has developed from formally staged and stiffly structured images in the Victorian era, with a long image develop time; all the way to its modern uses, expressed both artistically and mundane due to is easy accessibility through technological developments. i have chosen this topic because i have been look

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: