vernacular photography

[gemweeks]

does anyone know any good books on vernacular photography?

[jno]

could you be a bit more specific? Do you mean the sort of thing where all the kids at a school are given disposable cameras, or are you thinking more of historical photos or anonymous postcard shots? There are many, many photography books (you could try starting here) and perhaps just browsing through the art section of a big bookshop would be helpful.

[gemweeks]

more historical- what are some of the uses and how it differs from other kinds of photography.

[jno]

you could try something like this. I suspect what you're after didn't really start until the invention of the Kodak camera - before that, photography was a difficult and expensive business involving big cameras and long exposure times, so it hardly gave scope for the vernacular. Once snapshots from cheap cameras were made possible, anyone could do it. But books are mainly devoted to the big names and movements, which probably isn't what you want. Try scrolling through amazon's list to see if there's anything else that takes your fancy.

[gemweeks]

Thats great. Thanks for your help!