It's All in the Vernacular

A thought about talking about “Kodak Moments” this posting ended up making me feel like the ignorant butt of a donkey photographically speaking.

Old photos are truly fascinating and none more so then images of people unknown thrown away by unknown people and thankfully for unexplainable reasons.

These photos were either lost, forgotten, or thrown away. The images now are nameless, without connection to the people they show, or the photographer who took them. Maybe someone died and a relative threw away their photographs; maybe someone thought they were trash.

Some photos are found on the street. Some were stacked in a box, bought cheap at a flea market. Showing off or embarrassed, smug, sometimes happy, the people in these photos are strangers to us.

They can't help but be interesting, as stories with only an introduction. The mystery of their past only adds to their allure.

At some time in the mid '70's I was walking the sidewalk in a small California town just after a rain squall when I happen chanced on a crumpled glossy of a beautiful brunette in the gutter with a river of rainwater washing her face.

I had my Nikon with me and snapped a few frames,returned to the newspaper and developed and printed the result. Later but not by much, I was fired by the publishers who said they could not understand why I couldn't find more front page photos like that of the brunette.
I still wonder who that lady of the gutter was.
Vernacular and/or found photography is a big thing now and yes, I use the term “Kodak Moment.”

I have been involved in scanning old pictures and making some restorative actions for my household and my girlfriend finding it so easy to get lost in wonderment about those caught in the creased stained 60-yr-old postcards and the scratched Koda Color prints of the 50's and 60's.

Vernacular photography refers to the creation of photographs by amateur or unknown photographers who take everyday life and common things as subjects.

Examples of vernacular photographs include travel and vacation photos, family snapshots, photos of friends, class portraits, identification photographs, and photo booth images.

Vernacular photographs can also be considered types of "accidental" art, in that they often are unintentionally artistic in some way.

Lordy, I never realized photography is considered an art in so many strange ways.
I had thought there would some blither and blather about the clone tool, curves and such but I have been happily led astray by a bunch of imperfect amateurish, out of focus, poorly framed snapshots.

I am adding some links to some websites dealing with vernacular and/or found photos
http://www.saysomethingcryptic.com/spackleofthesoul/

I stumbled this one www.stumbleupon.com/getstumble.php

He has a great sense of humor. http://squareamerica.com/
is a good one also. Some day I'll get how to put links in right. http://community.livejournal.com/foundphotos/ This looks more geared to college students but is also fun. A community geared site is http://www.vintagepixels.com/
Then there is a site featuring a terrific collection of vernacular photos which has been featured in the media more then once:http://www.fredericbonn.com/misc/look_at_me.

And in the newsrooms' vernacular I'm going -30-