VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION

Fun over Function: The vernacular photographic as wishing well, ghost train and curiosity shop (Annebella Pollen)

Key notes:

Martin Parr: The House of Vernacular

- seven interlocking rooms

- diverse material

- text panels

- not convinced by authenticity of settings

- decontextualisation

- historical context (explains the photo too much= doesn't allow for ambiguity)

- "Although the driving force behind vernacular photography is the straightforward motive to record rather than to create art, it shares much in common with contemporary artistic practice and is a significant contributor to the language and wider appreciation of photography now."

You don't often expect to see vernacular photography in a museum or exhibition, they're usually kept hidden away in our homes and not frequently shared with people outside of our family and friendship circle. Although the increase of social media questions this as more often people are posting vernacular photos of their everyday life. Sharing these personal images across various platforms for anyone in the world to view.

Martin Parr is a point of reference that I'll come back to, his documentary and vernacular style is easily identifiable and recognisable. Throughout various of his exhibitions using vernacular photography Parr often uses collaging and combination of various images to combine many different photographs into one section. This gives us a lot to look at and take in and contextualises a lot of the photographs, showing us a variety of different images that play on the idea of what's not being captured.

"Unlike many other works of art displayed in museums, vernacular photography provokes an intrinsic connection with visitors. The banality and familiarity of vernacular photographs can immediately evoke memories of visitors’ personal family photographs and experiences. Through the re-contextualisation of amateur photographs—achieved by displaying them on gallery walls— the museum creates physical as well as ideological distance between the viewer and the image." (Vernacular Photography Within Art Museums- Sasha Skulinets)

- allows for new interpretations

- cultural resource and a device for cultivating aesthetic sensibility