I remember first getting into photography after my Mom put me in a darkroom class at the age of 10. Each Saturday I would go to Old San Juan and take a class with other kids of different ages. We would do a photowalk and then go into the darkroom to develop our photos. It was a magical beginning. Wish I had some of those negatives now. I became photo crazy after that. Happy world photography day!
I think we love photography because it's (arguably) the easiest medium to connect with. People can look at a photo and instantaneously understand the emotion behind it. That's another thing - emotion. We are connected with each other through emotion, and we as people want connection more than looking at something pretty (although the two can be linked, for sure.)
Great post, I have always loved pictures of people taking pictures! Jackson's are fantastic! But it made me think how pictures of people taking pictures with cell phones isn't quite as satisfying for me. Kinda weird cause it's basically the same thing.
Ha. Well, we may have to disagree on that. While I think it's true that many times images can stand alone, there is a unique pleasure in the marriage of picture and text. But that's just me! To each his, her, or their own. Thanks for looking, Randy!
I’ve long admired & followed Jackson. I think originally through a repost or 2 from Flak years ago. Through him I found many other collectors/curators/preservers of the vernacular. I had no idea that this community existed. Thanks for this and the Instagram reposts. Keep ‘em coming.
I take photos of neat things, and I like to capture what I see as close to how I saw them as possible, I can appreciate photographers that "paint with light" and all, but I'm more interested in reality. What I saw was beautiful or interesting or different all on its own, I don't need to "fix" it, except for whatever I need to do for exposure or color balance etc. to get it as close as I can to what I saw. Basically "real photographers" would call what I take as "snapshots", which is fine by me, I don't consider myself a "photographer", I'm just a guy with a camera, not an "artist".
Thanks for a fun post, and a reminder of World Photography Day. Seems like we have a world day for everything these days. I suppose the next thing will be world day for nothing to do. This is the first time I’ve heard the term “vernacular photography”, so a quick trip to Wikipedia was in order. I see why I missed it, it was coined in 2000, long after I formally studied photography and followed things closely. I recall being delighted once for “oh that’s nice for a snapshot“. and now snapshots are ubiquitous, collected, and are non-art art or something like that. My father’s family snapshots with little captions are what’s got me into photography, I suppose. He loved photography for his own reasons, and clearly had so much fun making photographs, and post processing them into photo albums with captions. I wonder what Susan Sontag would have thought of his captions.
Hello all, I entered the world of photography totally by chance. I was a student doing small jobs to pay for my studies, and I needed portraits for a hostess agency. I pushed the door of a photographer in my town and asked him how much it would cost to take a full-length photo of me. He replied: “The price of a sheet of paper”. He taught me everything. Three years later I was hired by Sygma, which later became Corbis. I worked as a news manager where I was lucky enough to work with some of the biggest names in photojournalism worldwide for 17 years. The adventure came to an end for me in 2016 and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I've been on several international photo award juries and nominated young talent for WorldPressPhoto.
I also do a few portraits you can have a look on my website if you'd like. Thanks for reading and let's keep in touch!
Wonderful photos, I especially love seeing the change in cameras. Polaroid, instamatic, roloflex, large format easel, feel free to add to my list if you can identify more 👀
Great post and thanks for the reminder about World Photography Day, Andy. I recently became fascinated with Jackson's work and, in one of my early Substack posts I wrote about the historical and emotional importance of snapshots. (https://markcaicedo.substack.com/p/puravida-post-four). While the iPhone has "democratized" photography (everybody's a photog now!), the craft of taking pictures is taking a few hits now as technology is moving faster than we can adapt and adjust. And thanks for that Friedlander quote, I'd never seen that before!
I remember first getting into photography after my Mom put me in a darkroom class at the age of 10. Each Saturday I would go to Old San Juan and take a class with other kids of different ages. We would do a photowalk and then go into the darkroom to develop our photos. It was a magical beginning. Wish I had some of those negatives now. I became photo crazy after that. Happy world photography day!
What a wonderful memory. Thanks, Steph!
I think we love photography because it's (arguably) the easiest medium to connect with. People can look at a photo and instantaneously understand the emotion behind it. That's another thing - emotion. We are connected with each other through emotion, and we as people want connection more than looking at something pretty (although the two can be linked, for sure.)
Great post, I have always loved pictures of people taking pictures! Jackson's are fantastic! But it made me think how pictures of people taking pictures with cell phones isn't quite as satisfying for me. Kinda weird cause it's basically the same thing.
Your piece brings back many personal memories of snapshots and eraly camera usage. Thanks for that!
Would be a great article if you did not add any words. Photography doesn’t need words. Words are the anathema to photography. Dr. Randy M. Kaplan.
Ha. Well, we may have to disagree on that. While I think it's true that many times images can stand alone, there is a unique pleasure in the marriage of picture and text. But that's just me! To each his, her, or their own. Thanks for looking, Randy!
I’ve long admired & followed Jackson. I think originally through a repost or 2 from Flak years ago. Through him I found many other collectors/curators/preservers of the vernacular. I had no idea that this community existed. Thanks for this and the Instagram reposts. Keep ‘em coming.
I take photos of neat things, and I like to capture what I see as close to how I saw them as possible, I can appreciate photographers that "paint with light" and all, but I'm more interested in reality. What I saw was beautiful or interesting or different all on its own, I don't need to "fix" it, except for whatever I need to do for exposure or color balance etc. to get it as close as I can to what I saw. Basically "real photographers" would call what I take as "snapshots", which is fine by me, I don't consider myself a "photographer", I'm just a guy with a camera, not an "artist".
Thanks for a fun post, and a reminder of World Photography Day. Seems like we have a world day for everything these days. I suppose the next thing will be world day for nothing to do. This is the first time I’ve heard the term “vernacular photography”, so a quick trip to Wikipedia was in order. I see why I missed it, it was coined in 2000, long after I formally studied photography and followed things closely. I recall being delighted once for “oh that’s nice for a snapshot“. and now snapshots are ubiquitous, collected, and are non-art art or something like that. My father’s family snapshots with little captions are what’s got me into photography, I suppose. He loved photography for his own reasons, and clearly had so much fun making photographs, and post processing them into photo albums with captions. I wonder what Susan Sontag would have thought of his captions.
These snapshots are more than glorious, a gem of a collector, Robert E. Jackson. Thank you for posting.
I follow him on IG and love his feed.
Me, too!
Thank you for sharing. I loved the way the images were woven into of the Ransom Riggs books and am glad to learn more about their collector.
Wonderful! I still need to see that book. Thanks for the note, Mary!
Love these snaps of snappers. Thanks for providing the IG link to that collection!
Hello all, I entered the world of photography totally by chance. I was a student doing small jobs to pay for my studies, and I needed portraits for a hostess agency. I pushed the door of a photographer in my town and asked him how much it would cost to take a full-length photo of me. He replied: “The price of a sheet of paper”. He taught me everything. Three years later I was hired by Sygma, which later became Corbis. I worked as a news manager where I was lucky enough to work with some of the biggest names in photojournalism worldwide for 17 years. The adventure came to an end for me in 2016 and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I've been on several international photo award juries and nominated young talent for WorldPressPhoto.
I also do a few portraits you can have a look on my website if you'd like. Thanks for reading and let's keep in touch!
Wonderful photos, I especially love seeing the change in cameras. Polaroid, instamatic, roloflex, large format easel, feel free to add to my list if you can identify more 👀
Am I geeking out much lol
I'll be danged.... today is also my birthday.....
Tim
Happy Birthday, Tim!
Great post and thanks for the reminder about World Photography Day, Andy. I recently became fascinated with Jackson's work and, in one of my early Substack posts I wrote about the historical and emotional importance of snapshots. (https://markcaicedo.substack.com/p/puravida-post-four). While the iPhone has "democratized" photography (everybody's a photog now!), the craft of taking pictures is taking a few hits now as technology is moving faster than we can adapt and adjust. And thanks for that Friedlander quote, I'd never seen that before!
Thanks, Mark! I'll check this out.