demeaned art form when compared to professional
contracted photographers to make images predominantly
photography, and as a folk-art phenomenon have had little
focused upon topography and geology of scientific and
influence on the work of professional photographers. Another
economic interest, or archeological sites of historical and
photographer, Paul Strand, meanwhile busies himself with
cultural importance. Conversely, in the hands of an amateur,
a technical definition of the snapshot as a photograph that
the camera can be pointed at anything, as the goal is neither
seizes an instant out of time. However, the mere fact that
to win fame or fortune, but merely to capture the world the
Wessel contributes some of his professional work to the
as photographer sees it. Kouwenhoven additionally contends,
issue, without commentary or titles, forces us to question
“the camera lens is, after all, indiscriminate,” linking the
what exactly a snapshot is, and its ideological or conceptual
untrained eye of the amateur to the mechanical eye of the
components. That is, how exactly does a snapshot relate to
camera itself. Because the photographer cannot control the
the aims of a professional photograph, and what is the impact
reality of a photographed scene, only the frame around it,
of vernacular photography upon major practitioners of the
snapshot images contain “things not even their makers had
medium? And most significant for this analysis, how does
noticed or been interested in.” As snapshots are made with
the popular American practice of snapshot photography and
less forethought than professional photography, they are
the attendant creation of personal imagery of landscapes
more likely to include the random information and detritus
reinforce and/or transform the cultural role of the West and
of a scene than a professional photograph. If uninflected by
its various spaces?
convention or commercial interest, the amateur thereby ap-
pears to give new credence to the argument that photography
Writing for the same issue of Aperture in 1974, pho-
tography historian John Kouwenhoven provides the clearest
is an inherently truthful medium.
discussion of the rise and influence of snapshots, and also
Photography historian and curator John Szarkowski presents perhaps the pithi-
... a quick snapshot must portray the world with greater accuracy than a studied and laborious painting, and as a medium is well suited to interrogate human perception.
est statement on the matter of photographic truth in The Photographer’s Eye (1966) when he elucidates, “Paintings were made—constructed from a storehouse of traditional schemes and skills and attitudes—but photographs,
alludes to his belief in the truthful nature of the medium in
as the man on the street put it, were taken.” The photograph
the hands of an amateur. He describes a snapshot as a picture
thus apprehends reality, just as it is happening, seizing an
“taken quickly with a minimum of deliberate posing…and
instant of truth from the stream of time. It therefore seems
with a minimum of deliberate selectivity on the part of the
obvious that a quick snapshot must portray the world with
photographer.” This statement aligns the snapshot with the
greater accuracy than a studied and laborious painting, and
provenance of vernacular photography, images taken by non-
as a medium is well suited to interrogate human perception.
professionals of whatever strikes them as worth recording.
Yet Szarkowski also points out, “The photographer edits the
Professional photography, by contrast, such as that under-
meanings and patterns of the world through an imaginary
taken by the survey photographers of the American West,
frame.” The fraught relationship between the indiscriminant
was heavily inflected by the personal and political goals of
lens and the manipulations of the photographer strikes at
the explorers leading the expeditions, and the photographs
the core difference between the snapshooter and the profes-
they circulated on the east coast and in the halls of Congress
sional. If the snapshooter does not adhere to an ideology or
were largely propagandistic tools used to win appropriations
convention, the snapshots produced might seem inherently
and appointments. Therefore, explorers encouraged their
closer to an idea of an objective reality in which objects exist
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