Snapshot Photography: The Lives of Images

ISBN-10: 0262544113
ISBN-13: 9780262544115
Category: Photography
Pages: 368
Language: English
Published: 2021-08-24
Publisher: MIT Press
Author: Catherine Zuromskis

Description

An examination of the contradictions within a form of expression that is both public and private, specific and abstract, conventional and countercultural. Snapshots capture everyday occasions. Taken by amateur photographers with simple point-and-shoot cameras, snapshots often commemorate something that is private and personal; yet they also reflect widely held cultural conventions. The poses may be formulaic, but a photograph of loved ones can evoke a deep affective response. In Snapshot Photography, Catherine Zuromskis examines the development of a form of visual expression that is both public and private. Scholars of art and culture tend to discount snapshot photography; it is too ubiquitous, too unremarkable, too personal. Zuromskis argues for its significance. Snapshot photographers, she contends, are not so much creating spontaneous records of their lives as they are participating in a prescriptive cultural ritual. A snapshot is not only a record of interpersonal intimacy but also a means of linking private symbols of domestic harmony to public ideas of social conformity. Through a series of case studies, Zuromskis explores the social life of snapshot photography in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century. She examines the treatment of snapshot photography in the 2002 film One Hour Photo and in the television crime drama Law and Order: Special Victims Unit; the growing interest of collectors and museum curators in “vintage” snapshots; and the “snapshot aesthetic” of Andy Warhol and Nan Goldin. She finds that Warhol’s photographs of the Factory community and Goldin’s intense and intimate photographs of friends and family use the conventions of the snapshot to celebrate an alternate version of “family values.” In today’s digital age, snapshot photography has become even more ubiquitous and ephemeral—and, significantly, more public. But buried within snapshot photography’s mythic construction, Zuromskis argues, is a site of democratic possibility.

Get the book

Similar books

Legendary Locals of Beacon Hill
By Karen Cord Taylor
John Collins Warren Dr. John Collins Warren (1778–1856) assisted his father, Dr. John Warren (1753–1815), in 1811 in removing the cancerous breast of Nabby ...
America and the Tintype
By Karen Halttunen, Steven Kasher, Brian Wallis
By Steven kasher, with contributions by Geoffrey Batchen and Karen Halttunen.
Rail Depots of Eastern North Carolina
By Larry K. Neal Jr.
This book hopes to provide rail enthusiasts, local and economic historians, and history lovers in general a look back at the heyday of railroads and how much they affected daily life in North Carolina.
The Hall: A Celebration of Baseball's Greats: In Stories and Images, the Complete Roster of Inductees
By The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
In this unique, 75th anniversary edition, read the stories of every player inducted into the Hall, organized by position.
Sheffield in the 1980s
By Mark Metcalf, Justine Jenkinson
We soon afterwards set up SCAM to complete what had been intended fifty years earlier,' explains Terry Howard, who was secretary of the group until it was finally wound up in 2017. And achieve they did by peacefully trespassing over ...
Brookfield and Elm Grove
By Thomas Ramstack
... (standing) Conrad Ramstack, Eleanor (Hastrich) Ramstack, Alma Theis, Veronica Ramstack, Helen (Phillips) Ramstack, and Joseph Ramstack. In 2009, this same tavern goes by the name O'Donahue's Irish Pub. (Author's collection.) ...
Antebellum Homes of Georgia
By David King Gleason
... 101 Bailey, Mary Elizabeth, 101 Banks, William, 94 Barnsley Gardens, 82 Barnett, Samuel, 26 Barnsley, Godfrey, 4, 82 Barnsley, ... James W, 79 Elliott, Virginia Tennessee, 79 Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foundation, 59 Emmel, Walter C, ...
Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945
By Erin Barnett, Phil Mariani
This exhibition includes approximately 60 contact prints drawn from a unique archive of more than 700 photographs in the collection of the International Center of Photography.
Legendary Locals of Lake Forest
By Susan L. Kelsey, Arthur H. Miller
Susan L. Kelsey, Arthur H. Miller ... This became the Bell School in the first half of the 20th century. ... The photograph of Clarice Hamill and her daughter on page 58 came from the Bell School's 50th anniversary celebration, ...
Pembroke
By Karen Cross Proctor
The Bay Path, a main route from Boston to Plymouth, ran through the West Elm and High Street neighborhoods. Over the generations, these diverse and vibrant communities have helped to shape Pembroke into the town it is today.