Watch all three presentations of 'Crash course on analogue everyday photography – vernacular photography outside the realm of the digital', the first segment of our event 'Talks on everyday imaging – the analogue and digital realm of the vernacular'.

Michal Simunek – Analogue-digital encounters in photography

The camera phone and networked digital image dominate the contemporary visual culture. Photography has been deluged with digital snaps and pervasive networked practices. However, analogue technologies still occupy an important place in photography. It even seems that the more digital technologies become ubiquitous and commonplace in everyday life, the more analogue media are being brought back to life. In this regard, the growing wave of the so-called analogue media revival is usually understood as a counter-digital tendency resulting from nostalgia about what is being lost in the digital revolution. Analogue photography is perceived as a manual, material, crafted, authentic, contemplative, and slow approach to media production and consumption that resists digital technologies’ novelty, over-saturation, and accelerating speed. The relationship between analogue and digital photography is thus often conceived in an either-or- way, i.e., as two incommensurable worlds that diverge concerning photography’s technology, conception, and practices. Contrary to this oppositional understanding of analogue photography and digital image, the present talk aims to show that analogue and digital photography do not live separately in contemporary visual culture but coexist, influence, and merge in various and complex ways. Wandering through the expansive landscape of contemporary popular photography, with a particular focus on the Lomography community of analogue photography enthusiasts, the talk presents examples of hybrid analogue-digital encounters in photography that invite us to rethink the increasingly irrelevant distinction between analogue and digital photography and offer us an answer to the question: How and why is analogue photography integrated into digital realms?

Michal Simunek is affiliated with the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) and the Prague University of Economics and Business. Educated in media studies and sociology, his research and lecturing focus on the theory and history of photography, media, visual and consumer culture. His current research interests include everyday photography, experimental photography, and photographic communities of consumption. He is the author of several book chapters and articles in scientific journals; he is also a translator of Geoffrey Batchen’s Photography and Dissemination: Towards a New History for Photography (NAMU, 2016) and Jussi Parikka’s What is media archaeology? (NAMU, 2022). Currently, he is a researcher in the project “Operational Images and Visual Culture: Media Archaeological Investigations”.

Lukas Birk – Vernacular photography and the public: How private lives turn into universal narratives

Vernacular photography emerged with the advent of affordable and accessible cameras in the late 19th century. It gained actual popularity after World War II as photographic technology became more widespread. Unlike professional photography, which focused on staged subjects or notable events, vernacular photography celebrated the beauty of the everyday. Family gatherings, vacations, and candid moments captured on film became the subjects of countless snapshots. These seemingly mundane photographs, have become valuable historical artifacts, reflecting the lives of everyday people. My personal interest lays where the vernacular presents an alternative to official history, often distorted by a clear political agent. Vernacular photography, characterized by its everyday subjects and amateur execution, has the remarkable ability to transform private lives into universal narratives. Through the lens of ordinary individuals capturing moments of their personal lives, vernacular photography offers a fascinating glimpse into the past and allows us to connect with diverse experiences. These photographs serve as personal histories, preserving the memories, emotions, and experiences of individuals and their communities. By examining these photographs, we gain a deeper understanding of the past and witness the evolution of societal norms, fashion trends, and everyday rituals by those who lived the past rather than those who decide what should be remembered of the past, notable people in power. Vernacular images reveal universal emotions, relationships, and milestones in our human existence in the last century. The joy of a child’s birthday party, the love between family members, the excitement of travel—these themes resonate with viewers across time and cultures. Vernacular photography reminds us of our shared humanity, breaking down barriers and fostering empathy by highlighting our commonalities rather than our differences. One of the most significant aspects of vernacular photography is its ability to document social change. From the early 20th century onwards, these photographs have played a crucial role in capturing pivotal moments in history, such as civil rights movements, women’s liberation, and urban development. Vernacular photographs can offer an unfiltered perspective, often capturing the realities of marginalized communities or providing counter-narratives to dominant historical accounts. They allow us to revisit the past and challenge prevailing narratives, promoting a more nuanced understanding of our collective history. In the past, historical narratives were predominantly shaped by elites and institutions. However, vernacular photographs provide a platform for ordinary individuals to tell their own stories and challenge the notion of authority in shaping historical memory. With the rise of social media and the ease of sharing photographs online, the democratization of storytelling has accelerated, allowing more voices to be heard and personal narratives to shape public discourse.

Lukas Birk is a photographer, researcher and publisher. His work has been exhibited on 4 continents and has taken many different shapes. His multi-disciplinary projects have been turned into films, chronicles and books. A large part of Lukas’ work deals with archival material he collects while traveling or while delving into his own background. These archives are not ambiguous nor are they found images. Lukas researches his imagery through investigations and explorations very often in areas that have been affected by conflict and have not yet had the chance to present existing material in an artistic form. His narratives tackle recorded history by creating alternate storylines and fictional elements, alongside commonly accepted facts. Fraglich Publishing, his own book imprint publishes projects by Lukas and selected work mainly focused around photographic history.

Nigel Martin Shephard (The Family Museum) – The borderless image

In the hands of a professional, a camera is a powerful tool. It can serve art, propaganda, advertising, scientific research or provide evidence. In the hands of an amateur, the camera is an extension of the heart. The warp and weft of vernacular photography is affection and attachment to the subject of the image. So focused are these emotions that any artistic considerations within the four borders of the frame mostly disappear. The aesthetic and technical aspects of the image-making are, more often than not, far the domestic photographer’s mind, thanks to the snapshot industry’s trajectory of constant technical simplification. Vernacular family photography calls on us to use different modes of criticism and storytelling; to take into account the emotional value of an image as well as any perceived aesthetic qualities. The rise of digital image-making over the past four decades has cast a new light over printed film photographs. Digital photography and its ever-evolving syntax, particularly in the realm of social media, have prompted many to now describe analogue photographs as ‘real’ and ‘authentic’, in reaction to the perception of digital or AI-generated imagery as less easily ‘verifiable’ or ‘genuine’. The tangible, material, paper images that were once meticulously organised in family albums, or lost to forgotten corners of the domestic home, are increasingly viewed as historical artefacts worthy of museum collections, academic research and archival projects. It is worth noting that the majority of these paper images have long outlived many a hard drive. The Family Museum project was set up to showcase the vast quantity of found family photographs now in general circulation, divorced, for a host of reasons, from their creators. Given its size – approximately 40,000 photographs and 600 albums – the project’s archive allows for an investigation into recurrent themes in family image-making, and also social trends and the practice of amateur photography. From its conception, the project was designed to be a highly collaborative endeavour, engaging not only academics, artists, curators and fellow collectors active in the field of vernacular photography, but also those for whom family photos hold significant personal meaning. The greatest significance of these images, for those who choose to study them, is perhaps to be found in their changing context. At the moment of creation, family photographs and albums were intended for a private and limited audience, who would view them within the boundaries of the home or family circle. They are intimate documents. Few of their owners likely imagined that their images would ever be on public display or cast onto the open market into a vast sea of anonymity. The way in which we choose to discuss and present these photographs should be cognisant of this, and should use their originators’ intent as a key frame of reference.

Co-founded in 2017 by Nigel Martin Shephard and Rachael Moloney, The Family Museum is an archival project rooted in Nigel’s collection of original British amateur family photographs and photo albums. Dating from the 1880s to the noughties, the archive has been amassed by Nigel over 30 years. Through sharing more than a century and a half of found images depicting everyday life and experiences, the mission of The Family Museum is to explore our understanding of ‘family’ as expressed through vernacular photography, and the opportunities the archive offers for research and discussion around the history and practice of amateur photography.

The keynote speech of the event, given by Geoffrey Batchen, is available on this link.

Event Concept: Róza Tekla Szilágyi, Endre Cserna 
Video: Zsuzsi Simon 
Music: Áron Lörinczi 
Design: L2 Studio

The lecture took place on November 2, 2023, in Budapest, Hungary.

You can find the original event description of 'Talks on everyday imaging – the analogue and digital realm of the vernacular' here.