Vernacular photography

1. Vernacular Photography

2. Vernacular Photography
• Vernacular photography focuses on photography of
everyday life and common subjects, and is often a style
used by amateur photographers.
• Using vernacular photography, photographers can
document an era through people and location and
sometimes capture photos of shocking realism. It is
sometimes referred to as accidental art, in that they often
are unintentionally artistic and representative.
• Examples of vernacular photographs include travel and
vacation photos, family snapshots, photos of friends, class
portraits, etc.

3. Examples of vernacular photography

4. • This type of photography is often more personal and is a
strong reflection on the photographer through style and
composition. Unlike documentary photography, its purpose is
not to document significant events in history, however, to
represent the period and the photographer.
Examples of documentary photography

5. August Sander
August Sander was a German portrait and documentary photographer –
1876 to 1964
He was described by some as “the most important German portrait
photographer of the early 20th century”
Sander photographed subjects from all walks of life focusing on a range of
professions and classes, and created an extensive catalogue of over 600
photographs of German people.
Sander first learned about photography by assisting a photographer who
was working for a mining company
He spent his military service 1897 -1899 as a photographers assistant.
People of the Twentieth Century, the collective portrait of German society,
has fascinated viewers from its earliest presentation in a 1927 exhibition.
Sander captioned each of his photos to suggest the fundamental role
played by the individual in a balanced society.
Approximately 150 of Sander’s images are now pioneered at the metropolitan museum of Art since 2004.

6. Blind Children, about 1930–1931Bohemian, 1922Architect's Wife, 1931
Architect's Wife, 1931Member of Parliament (Democrat), 1928 Farmer from the Westerwald, 1910

7. Robert Frank
Born in 1924 Age 91
Robert Frank is an
American photographer
and documentary
filmmaker. His most
notable work, the 1958
book titled The
Americans, earned Frank
comparisons to a
modern-day de
Tocqueville (Alexis-
Charles-Henri Clérel de
Tocqueville was a French
political thinker and
historian) for his fresh
and nuanced outsider's
view of American society.
Frank became a
professional industrial
photographer at the age
of 22 and in the 1940s
became a successful
fashion photographer for
Harper’s Bazaar magazine
in Paris. He felt, however,
that the scope of the
work was too limited. He
abandoned fashion
photography about 1948
and went to the United
States and then to Peru
to explore the expressive
possibilities of the 35-mm
camera.

8. ‘The Americans’
Frank secured a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1955 to
travel across the United States and photograph all
strata of its society. Cities he visited included: Detroit
and Dearborn, Michigan; Savannah, Georgia; Miami
Beach and St. Petersburg, Florida; New Orleans,
Louisiana; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Reno,
Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; Butte, Montana; and
Chicago, Illinois. He took his family along with him for
part of his series of road trips over the next two years,
during which time he took 28,000 shots. 83 of these
were selected by him for publication in The Americans.
First published in 1958

9. One of the most poignant themes that Frank pursued in “The Americans” was the
disparity of wealth in America, as well as the blatant racism. One of the subject matters
that hadn’t been explored much during his period was the rich. He didn’t want to just
photograph the poor and the middle class – as he wanted to paint a fuller-picture of
the American socio-economic classes.

10. Bibliography:
http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/robert-frank-and-
the-americans/
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/nov/07
/robert-frank-americans-photography-influence-
shadows
http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/01/07/timele
ss-lessons-street-photographers-can-learn-from-
robert-franks-the-americans/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frank
http://fadedandblurred.com/spotlight/robert-frank/