Monday, February 26, 2007

In the vernacular

I saw "Ghost Rider" last night, in which we learn that Johnny Blaze, a stunt cyclist morbidly obsessed with books about black magic and diabolicalism (for obvious reasons) was obsessive-compulsive even before he sold his soul. In one scene, Eva Mendes reminds him that, when they were teens, he once spent a $10 roll of quarters in a photobooth. Which reminded me of Babbette Hines, editor of the excellent found-photo/found-document books "Photobooth" and "Love Letters, Lost" -- I wrote about the latter book for Ideas.

Hines is also proprietor of Found:photo gallery in Los Angeles. The gallery specializes in one-of-a-kind vintage "vernacular photography," i.e., snapshots. Every once in a while, Found:photo mounts a themed exhibition of its snapshots. These collections are mesmerizing -- they reveal something about the collective unconscious (ever since the amateur camera was invented, we've used it to photograph naked women, Christmas scenes, people holding cameras, and -- oddly enough -- people watching TV), and at the same time they're gorgeous.

Walter Benjamin claimed that the act of collecting rescued objects from the mercenary world of exchange and bestowed upon them an almost magical significance; this is certainly true of the photos in "Shh, I'm sleeping," for example, which range from a 1940s silver gelatin print of a child asleep in a highchair to a 1970s snapshot of a young man napping in what looks like a dorm room.

This week, Found:photo unveils its latest themed exhibition: "Pet Love." A must-see.

UPDATE: A reader sends a link to this website dedicated to vintage snapshots of pit bulls.

Posted by Joshua Glenn at 11:39 AM

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