LIFE'S A BEACH - A FAVORITE SNAPSHOT

If the street is where both the fine art and amateur photographer go to strengthen their capacity to see with the camera and create an evocative tableau of sights, shadows, city life and movement, then the beach is where the snapshooter goes to have fun with the camera and relax.  There can be a self-conscious artful “looking” found in street photography which isn’t present in snapshots taken on the beach.  The images presented here evoke summer as no other photo subject can.  They speak to the strong connection between leisure activity and snapshot photography.  When people are half naked, something happens to them in front of the camera--they loosen up, laugh, sleep, relax, look sexy, or appear ridiculous.  They fall in love, strike strange poses, wear funny sunglasses, get too much sun, and generally revel in their new found freedom from work and the cold of winter. These photos speak to all of that and more, causing us to smile and remember our own carefree summer days hanging out with friends, family and the ubiquitous camera which captured all of it.

I love having Snapshot People share their photos here.   Some collectors ask to be included and some I ask to contribute.  I try to get about ten images each time.  For October, I'll be asking you to share one of your favorite Halloween images.  Since this is a popular topic, I'm hoping to have a lot more than ten images.  Bring it on!    

The photos below are in no particular order.

 

The agony or ecstasy of the writhing figure plus the sign is most of what makes the picture. It probably would have worked somewhere other than a private beach, but I think the open water adds a little something.

Joel Rotenberg 

For more information on Joel, click here.

 

I have several beach photographs in my collection but always come back to this one. Its perfect pose and lighting give it a magical quality. There are very few elements within the image: the boys, the beach, the ball and the sky but the balance and composition are exquisite. 

I imagine a controlling father, probably a keen amateur photographer, directing the kids on how to pose. The long shadows hint that it was taken towards the end of a sunny day. One shadow stops abruptly, reflecting only half the boy whilst the other’s casts a direct line towards his playmate. 

The photo is devoid of any recognizable landmarks or features. It was bought in Brighton, England, so it could be from along that South coast but then again it could really be from anywhere!

Orla Fitzpatrick

For more information on Orla, click here. 

My favorite beach photo is also the first real photo postcard I ever purchased, back in 1980 when I was 18. Even though it was 30 years ago, I still remember the visceral thrill I experienced when first viewing what I have long thought of as my "Block Island Girls." I love how the photograph beautifully captures an era: the dresses, bathing costumes, and parasols of the six young women who are the focus of the image, as well as background details like the other beach goers and horse-drawn buggies. And then there are the compelling  facial expressions of the women, which I have always thought provide intriguing clues as to what their personalities were like.

The postcard was mailed from Block Island, RI, on August 5, 1909, and was sent to a Mrs. A.L. Lockwood of Hartford, CT. The message (which I've always assumed was written by one of the young women to her mother) reads, "You'd best bring a sunshade, Ma. It looks kind of auspicious! Love, E.R.L."

Robert Young

Robert is boobob92 on flickr

Vintage hand painted photograph of beach in La Jolla, California, c.1955. This photograph is enveloping - I want to jump into the picture and go surfing (that would not be such a pretty picture!).

Barbara Levine 

projectb.com - a world of vintage photographs, found artifacts, art and ideas - the obsession of Barbara Levine, curator, artist and author of Finding Frida Kahlo, Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album and Around The World: The Grand Tour in Photo Albums.

Here's a late-afternoon photograph taken on the east coast. The sun is setting behind the woman taking the photo, so she's captured not just the gorgeous children but her own shadow. The breeze is blowing the ribbon of her hat and has already blown off the little girl's bonnet, which now resembles angel wings. The presence of the woman's shadow prevents this image from being sentimental pictorialism, though that's probably what she was aiming for. On the other hand, maybe she just wanted a snapshot of the children.

The empty beach, the vastness of the sea, the Hansel-and-Gretel fragility of the children, the way the little girl looks up to her stalwart older brother -- the viewer's subconscious can take all this information and supply a rich archetypal narrative.

But I bought the snapshot for the composition.

Pat Street

www.patstreet.com

Sand flows through your fingers. Uncomfortable to grab. It's fluid, without structure. The upper midwest of my youth had lakes and boathouses. Perhaps a short nibble of a beach. Wooden piers were often our beaches. The dilapidated structures near the lake - our playhouses. I often wonder if our lives would have been different if there were miles and miles of sandy beach. How would we change? The environment of youth shapes the adult. I like to think that the linear objects that surrounded us - helped to form the midwest ethic. Strong, solid and uncompromising.

I'm never happy on the sand. It's always shifting. I look for structures to find comfort.

Ron Slattery

www.bighappyfunhouse.com 

Being from the Jersey Shore, I have many opportunities to acquire beach photos and have hundreds of them.   This one is, and will be, my favorite for a long time.  It is a very recent eBay find.  I love that the girl on the right is laughing at the girl on the left.  She is getting her skirt wet doing what we call dancing in the waves. Trying not to do what has happened, only to have the camera catch her unaware as a gust of wind lifts her skirt showing her garter and undies!  So the last laugh is on her!!

Glenn Vogel

You can find Glenn selling photos at various shows in the northeast.  Up next is the Allentown Paper Show, October 1-2, and The Boston Photo Show, November 12th.

I really like this photo because of its simplicity and minimalism.  The starkness is appealing since one often associates the beach with crowds and noise.  It is one of my favorite snapshots.

Robert E. Jackson

For more information on Robert, click here. 

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE DOG PHOTO

The entry on color snapshots was a resounding success and I thank everyone for their positive comments to me about it.  While this selection has some returning contributors, there are  new collectors who are sharing their photo and thoughts as well.  Thanks to everyone for contributing to this entry on one of the most common subjects to be found in a snapshot.

Snapshots are about taking photos of things you love, things you see and have experienced, and things you have purchased.  A snapshot of a dog is a surrogate for all of those things.  To love a pet is to photograph that pet.  And one of the most popular pets to own and photograph is a dog. And such photos often tell you as much about the owner as they do about the pet itself.  Dog photos are timeless because the relationship between the owner and the animal hasn’t changed much since the dawn of the snapshot.  The advent of computer usage hasn’t compromised or altered how we love our pets.  We don’t share things with our dogs via Facebook or communicate with them via Twitter.   Dogs require physical not digital contact.   And nothing takes the place of petting your dog or playing with it-- not even a snapshot.  This entry is not about a collector’s favorite photo of his or her dog, but rather a favorite photo of a dog they never loved or knew. The reasons why a snapshot collector would have a dog (or any kind of pet) photo in their collection is quite varied as you will see as you read on.

Next month is what is your favorite beach photo.

The photos below are in no particular order and Joel Rotenberg and Mark Rotenberg are not related.  Enjoy!

I am a sucker for photos of anything flying through the air. I think it is because I respond visually to formalism in photography and oftentimes objects in flight framed against the sky are formally strong.  Such imagery elicits a visceral response at first glance and this photo is a good example of that.  My love of this photo postcard isn’t really due to a dog being the main subject of the photograph. Rather, this is a favorite of mine because the camera has caught the perfect moment of flight (halfway between where the object was and where it is going) with the animal being so clearly framed against a neutral background.  And to see the man and his pet nearly eye to eye is startling and an added bonus. 

Robert E. Jackson

For more on Robert, click here 

Some dog in a camping trailer - I don't know all that much about dogs.  Somebody told me dogs are pack animals. I mean, they run around in packs.

One day I went out back of my house and there were these two dogs, and they had one of my sheep in lock down. One dog had him by the nose, and the other dog had him by the asshole.  Those are, somebody told me, the tender parts. 

Well, I shooed those dogs away, and ever afterward (well, until I took him to the slaughterhouse), that poor sheep had two holes in his snout, where the one dog had him. I never looked at his asshole to see if he had any scars there.

Listen, I am a cat person.  A cat couldn't be bothered.  If it wants something (most of the cats are its, nowadays), it'll let you know.  Otherwise, mind your own business. 

To me, a dog is always sucking up.  My friend says that's not true---the dog just thinks you're the alpha dog, and expects you to tell it what to do.  If it gets the idea it's the alpha dog, it'll tell you what to do.

Anyway, if I was stuck on a desert island (why is it always a "desert" island? why couldn't it be a tropical paradise island?), I would take a dog.  A cat would have fish and crabs, and it wouldn't need me.  It would go off and be by itself. 

As far as why I chose this photo---I give all the dog photos to my sister, I just happened to have this one lying around. I  do like that white line.  I like the frame within a frame.  I like the tilt.  Oh all right, I kept this little photo for myself.  I have got dozens more to give my sister.

John Van Noate aka Mr. Waterslide on Flickr

Nice job by someone. As usual, though, it’s difficult to know if we’re taking it in the spirit in which it was intended. One imagines the witty tinter is the same as the witty photographer whose shadow we see, but the wit may very well have actually been mere childishness in both cases. Most of the humor comes from the way the tinter has emphasized the intrusive and irrelevant elements—that is, their intrusiveness and irrelevance. But somehow I doubt it was meant as a joke. As I reconstruct the tinting, it was perfectly logical. The dog, the primary subject and central element, came first. Then the tinter thought the hand was too strong a presence to ignore. Finally, the house was added for balance. Note the second and third shadows. 

Joel Rotenberg

The Art of the Snapshot? 

We think of photographs as proof of existence / truth, alive or current although we know that the subject in the image has aged and not current at all, perhaps even decided.

Looking back at  the newness of the silhouette photo it is plain to see that it has a similar path as the photogram in that it was a new creative way to use the camera. It started and then just influenced other photographers and hobbyists to follow. The subject matter was limited to humans, doing all sorts of things reading, smoking pipes, playing guitars, kissing, even sitting with pets but in a very short period of time the ideas and the newness of the silhouette was unfashionable. I believe it would have lasted longer and morphed into something else once the human was removed and opened the door for still lifes, flower arrangements as happened with the photogram. The use of the animal as the sitter seems like a start to me. It would be as if you had Fido's portrait painted in shades of grey. Still living due to the indirect soft focus.

Randall de Rijk

For more on Randall, click here 

I have over a thousand vintage and antique images of children with dogs. I chose this candid snapshot because it captures an aspect of the child/dog relationship that almost never comes through in a photograph – the joy of simply being together and quietly communing. You know from this image that this boy and this dog are best friends -- they romp and wrestle, run and swim, play fetch and tug-of-war, and that at night the dog probably sleeps at the foot of the boy’s bed.  This shot was a lucky one for the snapshooter, who happened along at just the right moment.

In addition to showing the essence of what it means to love a dog and have the dog love you back, this snapshot has all the attributes of a great image -- composition, content, clarity, contrast, and condition -- making it a lucky find for me. I wish I knew who the photographer was.

Pat Street

For more on Pat, click here 

Yes, folks, meet Snooki, the original 1920s Jersey Shore dog-about-town. In his day, this playful rogue was a dashing, debonaire doggie with swagger and style. Always on the lookout for a good time, or misplaced bone, this perspicacious pup was ahead of his time, sporting the first pair of Foster Grant sunglasses made expressly for the charismatic canine. Born a lowly, carousing quadruped, Snooki strove to elevate himself in life and, after a protracted period of bow-wow debauchery, he devoted himself to a life of upright actions and higher vision.

Mark Rotenberg

For more on Mark, click here 

I've had this photo a long time and remember paying 10 cents for it a flea market in Florida.  I love the very serious look and upright posture of the white dog and what looks to me like a laugh and a relaxed position of the dark dog.  I don't know what the hand is doing.

Clare Goldsmith - has been collecting photos since 1997, and her collection has been shown at Panopticon Gallery in Massachusetts.

A primal howl, domesticated by the pet owner with a camera.

Maria DiElsi

The Artway Project Blog 

The Artway Project on Kickstarter  Please help fund!

THE ARTWAY PROJECT - PLEASE HELP FUND THIS IMPORTANT ARCHIVE

In 2005, my friend Maria DiElsi, received thousands of negatives, prints and photographic ephemera belonging to Alexander Artway, a man who emigrated to the United States from Russia in 1922.

Throughout his life, Artway made photographs.  He left an archive of over 5000 negatives and prints of Russia, New York, Philadelphia, and more - each one meticulously crafted and beautifully conceived.  Most were made during the 1930's and range from iconic images of Manhattan to earthy illustrations of his Russian family working the land.

Maria is raising funds through Kickstarter to organize an exhibition of his vintage prints, along with contemporary prints made from his negatives; and to produce and illustrated biography/exhibition catalog using Artway's own photos to tell his sory and the history of an era.

On September 23, 2011, Gallery 1125 in Philadelphia will be hosting a premier exhibition of The Artway Project featuring vintage prints as well as contemprary silver prints made from vintage negatives.  Please take a looke at the photos and video below and help in getting this important show made.

I hope to see you at the show!

Stacy Waldman

 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR SNAPSHOT AND WHY?

When I had this idea for a blog entry, I never realized that it would generate so much excitement and participation.   Thanks to everyone for making the deadline and for contributing such awesome photos and comments!  The whole reason I started this blog 2 years ago was to help create an on-line community of people who love vernacular photos, a place where we all could share our thoughts and collections with the rest of the photo world.  And I think it has been a success in a lot of ways.  I have some great ideas down the line to make this blog even more of a community and as always, I appreciate any suggestions you might have as well.  It is your participation and contribution which makes this blog work.  I can’t do it alone.

Many collectors of vernacular photography will tell you that color photography is one of the most difficult areas in which to find great photos.  Partly that is due to the fact that color film appeared relatively late in the history of the photography and thus there are arguably less color photos out there than black and white.  In the snapshot world, it wasn’t until the late forties to early fifties that color became affordable such that the ordinary person could buy color film for their cameras. And color stabilization and fading are also issues to contend with, although often the imperfections are what make such photos a compelling addition to someone’s collection.  It will probably take another generation for the color hippie photos, the Woodstock photos, the protest photos of the sixties on to come to the marketplace.  So the fact that this entry contains so many wonderful color photos is a real testament to the collectors’ hard work in searching through bins of  flea market photos, getting up early to scoop the competition, and having a great eye for the material.

I think the next entry where I will be soliciting photos will deal with a collector’s favorite dog photo.  So start looking through your respective collections.  But for now, just soak in the color and commentary of what these collectors have uncovered...... Stacy Waldman

In no particular order.........

I love images of people acting out, being strange, or simply being outrageously themselves. I have always felt like an outsider and so I'm attracted to photographs of people who don't fit into the "normal" box.

I'm not sure why this guy decided to turn a shower curtain into a superhero costume. He was really working it out!!! Look at the detail of that fine cape. Maybe he was going to a Halloween bash? Or dressing up for his lover? Not sure. Whatever the reason, I'm so happy to see someone ballsy enough, no pun intended, to just be themselves. And it makes me laugh every time I see it. That's why people take snapshots - so they can remember the "good times".  

 Albert Tanquero

www.thefound.com

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I have never believed in zombies, so what can I say about this photo? Strange? Absolutely! 

As always, your guess would be as good as mine if trying to analyze this photograph. Is this young girl looking directly at the sun? Mesmerization is a word that pops into my head. What's she looking at? And she is not just looking—she is absolutely hypnotized at something above, in the sky. The return of the mother ship perhaps? I like that. The wide open and parched mouth — this portrait has so much to tell us if you look at storytelling. The washed out color, and the light which appears to be strongest on the subjects head—all of these things add up to a big checked box in the Accidental Mysteries category of snapshots.

I like the strange, the odd, the unusual. And why not? The flip side of that is familiar and boring—it's what we have to wade through to find something worthy and interesting.

Lastly, I have never liked photographs of human beings who are afflicted with obvious disabilities or who are mentally challenged. Perhaps this is one, but no one can be sure about this photo. So I am going with this photograph as just one of those awkward moments that speak to another level. 

John Foster

Accidental Mysteries  

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I love color photography, for it is seductive.  We might think in black and white, but we dream in color. There is a specificity to a color photograph which is in contrast to the universality found in black and white imagery. To me, color is as much the subject in a color photograph as any other element to be found there. Color photography is contemporary because the past which is recorded and remembered is the same hue as our own. It does not exist in the gradations of grey and black or sepia-tones associated with the distant past.  It is now. It is both cool and hot at the same time.

The photo I have selected is a Kodachrome.  Larger than most and enigmatic in its content.  It might not be an actual snapshot by some standards, but rather a photo taken for a screen test or a fashion magazine spread.  All I know is that this image haunts me.  The blue which permeates the scene captivates while being muted to an almost inky indigo. The woman is beautiful but not young.  Why is she in a field of sunflowers?  And what possessed her to be in that field in a satin dress?  She doesn’t look at the camera, but is focused on something outside the photo’s frame as if in some twilight reverie. I am drawn to that woman and the mystery of the moment in a way that I wouldn’t have been had she not been recorded for eternity in color.  Yes, seductive. Quite.

Robert E. Jackson
For more information on Robert E. Jackson, click here.

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This is a wonderful photo by any standard, and all the more wonderful for being a snapshot. I would point out the casual rigor of its composition; the great faded red-green palette that only a Kodacolor can have; the mystery of the scene (coming or going? posed or not? friends, or something else? looking at what, and why?); its lurking sexiness (women alone, the American road, motel bedrooms); and finally the perceptible echoes of name art photography (Cindy Sherman, Henry Wessel).

I’ve had this picture for a long time. When I bought it, in a junk shop in a small town near Salton Sea, California, I was told that one of the two women was the daughter of Tom Mix.

Joel Rotenberg 
The Art of the Snapshot? 

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Poker dice. Important roll. No interest in the photographer. Green canvas chair/green metal glass. Just a stunning ,1955 color snapshot.

Cheryl Ohland  
Lablover49 on eBay

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I've had this image for a long time and it always makes me smile.  I love that the camera has taken over her face except for one closed eye.  I think it pulls you in, as a viewer, because you are being photographed.  I expect to see the flash go off.  And, the caption is great.  I also love her teased red hair.

Clare Goldsmith - has been collecting since 1997, and her collection has been shown at the Panopticon Gallery in Massachusetts.

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Here's my favorite color photo: Nothing fancy - just an Arbus-ian old man standing in the backyard holding fish rendered in about as perfect an example of late 50s/early 60s kodacolor as you'll find.  What's not to love?

Nicholas Osborne 

theboatlullabies.tumblr.com

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Poolside, c.1970

I love vintage color photographs – from the folk art quality of early hand painted photos (the messier the better!) to the interesting ways the dyes fade out in 1950s Kodacolor images, to the dreamy saturated colors of old Polaroid photos– it is hard for me to pick a favorite because I like them all! 

Poolside, c.1970 is a good example of composition and color being completely integrated in a photograph.  You can feel the sun in this picture. The bright blue sky, the shine on the woman’s skin, her swimsuit being the same color as the building and the contrasting similarity in color between the lounge chairs and the white fence all add up to a strangely appealing photograph. The color in this photograph simultaneously reads as both literal and abstract. If the color was stripped out of the image - if it was a black and white – the photo would not so neatly evoke a sense memory of summer (or be a reminder to wear sunscreen!).

Barbara Levine

projectb.com - a world of vintage photographs, found artifacts, art and ideas - the obsession of Barbara Levine, curator, artist and author of Finding Frida Kahlo, Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album and Around The World: The Grand Tour in Photo Albums.
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What I love about this photograph is it's disorienting formal qualities.  Where are these two people?  Which way is up?  What is going on?  The poster on the ceiling or top bunk adds to the dynamic composition.  The faces are buried.  Is this play or fight or love?  These tangled legs are caught in perfect frozen harmony, creating a snapshot that conveys a mysterious almost psychological type of abstraction. 

Jason Brinkerhoff 
Snapshots from Jason's collection will be at this NYC gallery in the Spring of 2012 

WOW! BOY IN A DRESS! by PAT STREET

Ever see an item title on eBay like “CDV BOY IN A DRESS! OMG! WOW!!” or “ADORABLE LITTLE GIRL IN OVERALLS 1892”? Sellers should know: there is nothing amazing about a boy in a dress, and it’s extremely unusual to find a nineteenth-century girl in overalls or trousers of any kind. If you’re selling an old photograph and are in any doubt, call it a child, not a boy or girl.

To determine the gender of a child in an antique photograph, you have to remember that the styling of children in the nineteenth century was very different from the styling of children today. Before 1900, boys wore dresses and had long hair until they were five or six  (or older), when they were “breeched” (graduated to trousers) and got their first haircut (not necessarily in that order). Still, there are ways of telling young boys from girls. Think “Hair, Clothes, Props, Pose.”

First, if you’re lucky, a name will be written on the back of the photo. Don’t jump to conclusions, though – someone may have thought a boy was Aunt Mabel because he’s wearing a dress. (You also have to keep in mind that boys’ names included Marion, Shirley, Beverly, Evelyn, Vivian, etc.)

The guidelines I give below apply generally to photographs of children in North America and Europe. All of my examples are of caucasian children, but the guidelines also apply to children of other ethnic groups. Note: I have seen exceptions to every one of these guidelines, and I’ll show you some later on. Today, I’m talking about hair -- next time, clothes. 

HAIR

With or without a name to help you, hair style is the most reliable indicator and the first thing to consider.

  

•  Throughout the nineteenth century, girls wore their hair parted in the center, and boys wore theirs with a side part.  This rule was so inflexible that sometimes it’s the only way to tell the gender of a child. BUT THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS. (Below: boy, girl, boy; girl, boy, girl)

 

•  Boys often wore their hair in long ringlets or curls, sometimes even with hair ribbons. If it’s parted on the side, it’s a boy; if it’s parted in the center, it’s usually a girl.  (Boy, boy, girl; boy, boy, boy; boy, girl, girl)

 

•  Here’s a set of twins from around the turn of the century –Floyd and Florence. Notice the way their hair is parted. (Boy, girl.)

 

•  Mothers often coaxed boys’ hair (not girls’) up into a center ridge or wave, which could be quite extreme. This Kewpie-wave was sometimes started when baby boys had hardly any hair. When a child’s hair was a bit longer, often there was a center curl tumbling down onto the boy’s forehead. (These are all boys.)

 

•  Sometimes when a child was ill with a fever, his or her head was shaved, so occasionally you may find a photograph of a girl with extremely short hair, sometimes pulled tightly back, or a bald head. (These are girls.)

Coming soon:  How to tell gender by clothes.

For more information on Pat Street, click here