Monthly Archives: March 2009

We have some lovely Real Artwork—photographs that were bought and paid for. But that’s not what this blog is about. This blog’s about vernaculars, and I don’t mean pidgin English. RocketMan worked at a photo show every year for about ten years, and in a photography gallery back in the 90s. I loved visiting the shows, seeing all the big, $25,000 photographs, the staged and the candids alike, but my favorites were always digging through the vernacular boxes. “Vernacular” is a word photography folk have co-opted to describe “Random old photos we found and can sell for $250 a pop.” No one knows who’s in them; no one might even know who took them. They’re just leftovers from someone’s family album. They’re often of the family in front of the new car, or the family in front of the lake house, or something equally staged, but occasionally, you’ll get a little gem that captures a moment, and with great composition, to boot. The concept was new to me; we didn’t hang old photographs unless they were big 8x10s taken in a formal studio. The rest went into photo albums and shoeboxes. Continue reading →