Do you collect and trade vernacular photography?

Does anyone else follow this "art movement"? There are always listings on eBay for vernacular photography.

 

I found a cache of them among my mother's things. She collected other paper ephemera. Proprietor of shop she favored for valentines & other chromolithographs probably persuaded her these also were, or were going to be, highly collectable. I have them, not sure what to do with them.

 

AB, I feel a bit behind the times here... I didn't even realize that vernacular photography WAS an "art movement"!

My own examples are mostly photos showing family and friends, but it's an interesting concept as a "movement". Does personal privacy come into play here?

 

Personal privacy is probably a bit obscured, due to the fact that the photos were pretty much disposed of and found their way to antique malls and similar shops. I think it's a matter of the collector's ethics. I do understand if someone refused to sell them online or publish them in a book.

 

I collect postcards including some real photo postcards which might just barely fit into the subject matter of this thread. I've seen some videos on YouTube that show "paper shows" which look very interesting and probably include lots of vernacular photography.

 

If the pictures are old enough, the snapshot subjects have all died of old age anyway. There would still be some debate, but unidentified snapshots from 60 or 70 years back probably aren't much of a problem.

 

On RPPC postcards it is very helpful to have handwritten notations on the back of where the card is from and subject matter especially if there is no info printed on the card by the publisher. A lot of info has been lost to time and this can greatly devalue postcards if the search is very difficult or impossible.

 

I've seen a lot of greeting cards (and blank note cards too) that have a "vernacular photo image" on the front. There are whole lines of these for sale in various stores here and my brother (3500 miles away) sent me one for my birthday last fall. The companies that print and distribute have to be getting them from somewhere!

 

The Art school at a local university got a box of vintage 50s vernacular negatives from me this Summer. They were orphaned and unidentified. The assistant Dean was very happy to get them. Just about danced a jig, in fact.

 

Incidentally, I sold that one with the women in the locker room after several tries. I got about $10 for it.

 

I didn't know there was a term for old snapshots! Cool... ya learn something new every day! I've been the recipient of loads of them that have come through the family. I've sold some... they were 40's and 50's...a few had names on them. Some will go to appropriate archives... and some I'll keep. I've also had a few that I ended up with the negatives; and I've reprinted to sell...they are treasures! It breaks my heart that so often they get pitched. Unless they are indecent or something... I like seeing them go on to their next life. I can see where there may be varying discussion re: what should happen to them....

Leslie

 

What the term really refers to is old photographs done by amateurs that have an artistic quality that was mostly not intended. One probably has to go through 200 or more amateur pictures before one will find one that has the quality of a true work of "vernacular photographic art."

 

On other social media sites you hear so often that the families of the deceased don't want copies of many of the photographs that are left behind and many are left to the family historian in giant piles, unidentified, and unloved or are worse thrown out or donated to the local thrift store who likely disposes of them as unsellable. Many of my generation, if they try to preserve history at all, try to digitize it which is not a good solution because hard drives fail, passwords get misplaced, or the hosting company goes out of business and everything is usually lost.

I think we should all support local historical societies since they can preserve some, obviously not all since many of them are overwhelmed with a constant tidal wave of donations and not a enough staff to sort them or space to preserve them. Libraries may be another outlet for preservation, I know my local library has an extensive postcard collection at the main branch. University's also may play a pivotal role as custodians of local history since they have special collections, archives, cheap labor in the form of researchers/student interns, and ample endowments. Actually I think collectors and resellers play a pivotal role in preserving and tending the history of the past centuries. I know I have likely saved some items from the landfill. Hopefully we can ride it out until our items are better looked upon and society finds they are worthy of preserving.

 

Old 8mm and Super 8 films are also collected.

 

Thanks so much for posting information on this subject. I am shocked at what people are paying on online auctions for single photos. I have been buying albums for years just because I like to look at them and to help people who are doing genealogy research. I will make sure to pay more attention at estate sales when they have those big boxes of family photos.