CONDITION SCHMONDITION, PART I by PAT STREET

To some collectors, the three most important words guiding the value of vintage and antique photographs are “condition, condition, condition.”  For me, though, poor condition is often irrelevant -- and in some cases, even desirable.

Condition issues can take many forms.  Writing/labeling on the image; dirt and fingerprints; tears, folds, and creases; foxing; silvering; insect damage; trimming; staining; scuffs, scratches, and other wear; tack holes; deliberate defacement; fading.

Sometimes poor condition matters little, as when the content of the photograph is so wonderful that I would buy it no matter how damaged it were.  But here are a few examples of images that I think are enhanced and/or made more evocative by their poor condition. These were very inexpensive and are among my favorites.

 

1.  How much was this dog loved?  Judging by the condition of this CDV, he was very precious to someone.  Solo CDVs of pets are hard to find and are usually in pretty good condition, having been kept in a family album for many years.  You can tell by the grime and wear on this one, and by the five (!) tack holes at the top, that it was handled a great deal and also displayed on the wall, indeed several different walls, over time.

2.  Covered now with lines and creases – this real-photo postcard (RPPC) is more than a hundred years old, and it shows its age. Damaged, it’s far more poignant to me than if it were in mint condition.  I wonder which child’s family handed the postcard down -- and why the last relative to own it let it go.

3.  Without the inscription, this tiny snapshot would still be a desirable image of a crudely constructed cabin, with many interesting details – the slanted board leading up to the porch, the rain barrel, the ladder, the fenced area, the roof vent, and the pensive woman. I would have bought it anyway – I think it cost a dime.  But it’s the writing on it that makes it heartbreaking.

4.  Here’s a real-photo postcard with writing on it.  Without the numbering, it would be a typical school class photo, neither well composed nor expertly exposed. But with the numbering, to someone it was clearly not a class, it was 25 individuals, each with a name, a story, and a personality.  The names are not provided on the back, so at one time there must have been a separate key.

5.  I like the composition of this little snapshot and the impressionistic images of the children on the beach. But what makes it extra special is the four little digits floating up in the margin.  Again, there is no identifying key, but to someone, these four kids are important and the other people in the image are not.

6.  Here’s one I would have bought without the inscription (love her laughing face!), but it’s so much more evocative when we know a little bit about the woman.

7.  Look at the big greasy fingerprints on this one.   Some working man, or maybe a soldier, must have loved one of these women (or the little girl) very much.  The image is also oddly trimmed, perhaps to fit in a frame.

8.  These rustic guys with heavy coats and a gun were already scary, and then someone had an accident with red ink and enhanced the threatening effect.  Blue ink wouldn’t have been nearly as lurid.

9.  These are members of my family at the beach in 1937.  Someone with a ballpoint pen must have been very, very mad at LuLu.  I had always heard that her strictness was infuriating; enlightening to see it was really true.

10.  This is a “badly” foxed cabinet photograph. I’ve never seen damage form such a beautiful pattern.  It  looks like an intricate motif for cloth or wallpaper, and in this image, it decorates the wall, the girl, her clothing, the chair, and the floor.  Have any of you seen such a thing before?

11.  I wouldn’t have given this image a second look if not for the wonderfully crude paste-up job.  Someone who had apparently run out of glue used Dennison labels to affix it to an album page. A newspaper article was stuck to the back of it.  It all makes a great composition.

12.  Here’s another detail from an album page. This one was created by a child who decorated with a border of crayoned kisses only certain photographs of people she loved.  These dog twins were thus honored.

Coming soon:  Condition Schmondition, Part II

For more information on Pat Street, click here.

HOUSE OF MIRTH 2011 CALENDAR & NOTE CARDS NOW AVAILABLE.

In a shameless piece of self promotion, I share the 2011 House of Mirth Calendar and companion note cards, now available for sale on my website www.houseofmirthphotos.com.  This is the 6th year in a row that I've printed the calendar, and the first that I've printed note cards.  Bring on the holidays!

A MUST ARTICLE FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN COLLECTING SNAPSHOTS

John Foster aka Accidental Mysteries, makes all of us snapshot buffs proud

BEFORE & AFTER - A PHOTO ROOM ORGANIZED

I have a spare room where I keep my photos that are for sale, and it was a bit of an unorganized mess.   My friend Robert E. Jackson volunteered his services to come organize my room, and below you will find before and after photos and an after video.  It's been about a month now, and it is still organized. 

Before:

After:

"PAGEANTS OF MASCULINITY": REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS OF MEN POSING TOGETHER by Bob Young

When Stacy asked me to contribute an entry for her blog, I knew I wanted to write something about my collection of vernacular photos of men - in particular, images that American Studies professor John Ibson has categorized as "pageants of masculinity," in his ground-breaking book, Photographing Men: A Century of Male Relationships in Everyday Photography (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002).

 

The "pageant" phenomena had its heyday during the 1890s through the early 1900s.  This type of image usually features two or more American men posing together in deliberate displays that either emphasize traditional "masculine" behavior, or playfully defy it (such as, posing in drag).  Masculine-oriented subjects include men drinking, smoking, and gambling (sometimes all three together).  Posing with firearms and pretending to fight or box were also common themes, as was dressing-up in cowboy or Indian attire.

 

There are probably any number of reasons why photos like this were so popular at the time. Camaraderie and a sense of shared fun are often obviously evident, as is an emphasis on shared masculine pursuits, that were distinct from the sphere of women. Dressing up as the romanticized figure of the cowboy might have signified a subconscious wish to escape the confines of modern life, while dressing as a woman may have been a way of, if only humorously in a photo, to briefly escape the confines of gender conformity.

 

The “pageant” examples I’ve provided for this entry are all real photo postcards from my collection, and date from the first and second decades of the 20th Century. While “pageant” photos are found in other formats, most notably cabinet cards, I am a huge fan of the real photo postcard, and my men photos collection is primarily made up of this type of image.

 

 

 

What I love about these photos, is that the men pictured, are putting on a type of visual performance that continues to resonate and communicate something to us about the men and era in which they were taken.               
                                            

To see more vintage men photos from Bob's collection on Flickr, click here

Click here for information on Bob Young
 

EARLY KODACHROME PHOTOS

Yesterday, I read this article in the Denver Post,  Captured: America in Color 1939 - 1943, which show wonderful color photos taken during the Great Depression of rural America.  The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.   Click here to read.

I thought I would share a few Kodachrome snapshots from my little collection.   I have a special place in my heart for pre-1960 snaps without the white border.

AN INTERVIEW WITH ESTELLE ROSEN - LEARNING HOW TO LOOK AT SNAPSHOTS

House of Mirth Photos has obtained an exclusive interview with Estelle Rosen, a photo dealer who has been a constant presence on the East Coast snapshot scene for upwards of twenty years and whose eye has had a great deal to do with defining the field.


Estelle, by all accounts you were among the first to recognize snapshots—for that you should get a lot of credit.  I imagine you weren’t following anyone.  What made you notice the first snapshot?  

When I discovered photo albums in flea markets, I was fascinated by the beautiful light, the mood, the composition and design of the pictures.

I’d spent four years in art school and I had a trained eye.  I’m an artist, but I don’t think you need formal art training to see.  I think your eye gets more sensitive the more you look.  With some guidance your eye will develop over time.  We’re all creative in our own special ways, and snapshots are a wonderful catalyst for the expression of creativity. 


“The expression of creativity.”  That sounds important.  Maybe you can enlarge on it later on.  Did you buy snapshots just for yourself at first, or did you try to sell them right away?

It was just for myself at first.  I shared them with a friend who became a constant customer and encouraged me to keep buying!  Selling snapshots has always come naturally to me.  I always felt I was selling my “vision.”  I felt I had something to say.

But my customers have guided me to some extent in what to buy.  Collecting snapshots is very personal.  People do it for different reasons.


Can you tell us a little more about the different kinds of collectors you’ve run into?

I am fascinated by what some people buy.  I know a poet who wants images that will inspire him.  He looks for sensitive images with a soft light.  They usually have a rural theme to them.  I can feel a poem emerging from some of the photos he chooses.  Another customer told me, “I need to be touched by the image.”  She’s looking for a personal reference.


What’s it all about for you?

For me it’s all about art—by which I don’t mean anything deliberate on the part of the people who took the pictures, as a rule.  I’m bringing an artful interpretation to them, if I can put it that way.

I sell my vision, and I collect my vision—although to me it’s more like just my favorites in a box!  But visions can differ.

We can’t know if the people who took the pictures saw what we see.  It’s there if you can see it.  And not all snapshots have it.


When you talk about art, what do you mean?

I mean a “look”—composition, lighting, formal things.  The way I think of it, there are universal standards that anyone with an eye can spot.  But each of us uses the standards to construct an aesthetic, which is personal.  As I say, visions can differ.
 
When a snapshot has the things we look for, it has them accidentally. That leaves room for us, for our own creative eye.

Without that creative eye, snapshots would just be family photos.


Estelle, maybe you can help us by explaining what you see in a few examples. What would you say to someone to get them to appreciate what’s good about these? Here’s the first.
 

The first thing I look for is the abstract design of a photo.  Here the light and dark areas play off each other to define the image as a whole. It’s a rigorous, “mathematical” design.  The subject is beside the point here.  The composition, light, and forms say it all.

Double exposures relate to surrealism—they suggest a wider art context.  This one could easily be made into a painting.

These two images came together accidentally.  But part of appreciating snapshots is that we welcome accident.  And of course the surrealists did too.

The dark forms in the front create an interesting spatial relationship with the background: the foreground is flat, but that highlights the receding perspective of the top image.  You have an illusion of depth that the top image alone would not have had.

What I like here is the way the image is framed by the dark form that surrounds it.  The contrast between the dark enclosure and its opening brings out the nice horizontal design of the landscape.  On the mundane level, of course, it’s just a view out a window.

Here the white form of the refrigerator sets off the dark space surrounding it.  And the foreground came out in soft focus—so that the tinted fruit seems to have a soft texture, which is a perfect balance to the simple, flat, untinted forms in back.  So you have contrasts in two directions—center against the sides, and back against the front.

This one has mystery—an atmosphere and an implied story.  That car isn’t going anywhere!  The placement of the car is perfect.  It makes for a wonderful composition.

  

The fence has a gentle flow and there’s a slight movement in the trees at the top.  The fence is an interesting distraction from the bland hill.  Movement, texture, and space come together to create a lovely, simple composition. 


This is a powerful abstract statement, going far beyond the subject matter.  The empty space becomes a form of its own, supported by the dark shapes.


As a dealer of very long standing, someone who’s been watching the ups and downs of the field from the beginning, you have a unique perspective on the snapshot scene.  What do you think we can do to help more people appreciate snapshots?

We need to be bringing more aesthetics to what we do, and we need better language to talk about what’s in these pictures.

The real challenge is to own your creative eye, as snapshots allow you to do—to understand what pleases you and why, to develop your own personal aesthetic.


Thank you for talking with us, Estelle!

You’re welcome.


Estelle sets up at various shows on the east coast.

You can see Estelle's art work at estellerosen.com