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Vernacular and everyday photography is safekept because of a very dedicated group of people who turned their curiosity and interest into a dedicated and often longterm activity focusing on collecting photographs and catalysing discussions around this image heritage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barbara Levine and Paige Ramey are collectors, artists, and curators specialising in vernacular photography. Their photography collection, known as PhotoMania<\/em>, was recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and their first collection of vintage photograph albums by the International Center of Photography in New York. They run Project B, an archive and collaborative curatorial venture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were able to meet Barbara via Zoom to enjoy a conversation about our shared interests and delve into the main question: why are we intrigued by the vernacular?<\/p>\n\n\n Paige Ramey and Barbara Levine<\/p>\n\n\n\n R\u00f3za Tekla Szil\u00e1gyi: I'm really intrigued how you ended up dealing with vernacular photography. What fueled your interest? And I'm really interested in what was your initial starting point, and why did you start collecting?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Barbara Levine: Photography has been a lifeline in every decade of my life. I come from a family of antique collectors and as a young person I spent a lot of time unsupervised in antique stores. I was intrigued with photographs and photo albums because they were usually in the corner of the shop in bags, piled up, dusty and unorganized. All these faces from different times and places staring back at me! <\/p>\n\n\n\n My mother and grandmother were interested in the porcelain and Victorian sterling collectibles. But I was mesmerized by the photographs. And typically, the shopkeeper would say: \u201chere, take them.\u201d As soon as I got home, I would spread the photos on the floor and start organizing them. I got early on the pleasure of sorting and categorizing photographs. I did the same thing with other kinds of things like comic books and cards. I was always sorting and categorizing and then switching the categories and putting things together that didn\u2019t belong together. I still do it now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was also surrounded by photo magazines \u2013 Life<\/em>, Look<\/em>, National Geographic<\/em>, etc. Every week different picture magazines would arrive in the mail. I loved looking at pictures and had my own instamatic camera and was constantly taking pictures. I thought when I grow up, I want to be a photographer! In the summers, I went to the Maine Photographic Workshop (now Maine Media) and learned from photographers how to develop film and make prints in the darkroom. And then I went to the San Francisco Art Institute. I put myself through school selling at the flea market \u2013 on the one hand I was learning about the history of photography and fine art photography and on the other hand I was looking at all the photos people left behind. It became clear to me my interest in found photos was greater than my desire to make new photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had so much more joy in what I did not yet have language for. With found photographs I sensed there was something there related to storytelling, forging identity, and connecting with others. I understood that we are all bringing our contemporary sensibilities when we're looking at material from the past. Photography is the only medium with us from birth to death \u2013 it is ubiquitous in our lives. It is the most powerful, popular, accessible, and mysterious medium for human connection. I really wanted to explore that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I pursued my graduate level education in museum curatorial studies (all the while continuing to collect - I have never stopped!) and forged a career in museum work to weave together my artistic, curatorial, and contemporary sensibilities. I was fortunate to get curatorial and project coordinator jobs in museums (including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art which has an amazing photography collection) and was exposed to many different kinds of art, artists and the myriad ways to curate and install art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And then around when things started to go digital, I thought, well, this is a good time to shine a light on the photo albums I had been collecting. With Princeton Architectural Press, we made the book, Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album<\/em>. The book explores the first generation of photo books and photographic story tellers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n The cover of Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album<\/em> published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the book titled Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The interest in found imagery is not a newfound contemporary interest. But we can see that in the last 25 years the discussion around vernacular imagery is shining new lights on things from the academic perspective. Did these new narratives, these new essays, texts, discussions affect your practice in any sense? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n It's a very good question. I remember being excited when I discovered Geoffrey Batchen\u2019s early books and being introduced to Mexican fotoesculturas (photo sculptures). More recently, Paige and I were inspired by the international interest generated by the Imagining Everyday Life: Engagements with Vernacular Photography<\/em> (Walther Collection) exhibition, catalogue, and symposium with Columbia University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The main thing that has affected our practice is the growing and diverse community of people now interested in vernacular photography. People are discovering our books and projects and appreciating our sensibility about collecting as a medium of expression. We love being part of the dialogue and it inspires us to have an active archive. Our current collection project, PhotoCircus<\/em>, is focused on photographic objects and the ways people personalized their everyday activities with different forms of photography. And we are excited to see how the current generation of students, writers and curators embrace vernacular photography in all its forms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n PhotoCircus badges<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going back to the collecting: do you remember any formative photographs that struck a chord with you when finding them? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In addition to those photos I had when I was a kid I remember a photo from a 1910 album \u2013 it was of a man putting framed photos on his wall. I don\u2019t know why but it gave me goosebumps! I\u2019ve always been fascinated by self-portraits made before the internet and social media and images that have been altered or that have text. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n The cover of Caption This \u2013 A Photographic Collection of Amusing Comments, Snarky Asides, and Romantic Admissions <\/em>published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n It's funny you mentioned the social media aspect, because I would like to ask you about the latest Project B publication titled Caption This<\/em>.<\/strong> A lot of people who are working with photography in are somehow afraid of language being something too descriptive in relationship to photographs. But your book showcases that photography has an honest relationship with language when used and created by the practitioners themselves. And I find it really mesmerising. What was the artistic and curatorial aspect behind this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n I noticed that whenever I posted a photo with a caption on Instagram people in the comments jumped in and laughed or added their own version of the caption. Paige and I started thinking about this because we are living in the heyday of captioning. We're narrating our lives every day on social media. We use words and phrases very differently now. And the use of language then was unedited compared to our captions now on social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many pictures from the past and photo albums have a voice in them, and that voice will be lost unless somebody preserves them. Paige used to work in media preservation and has a lot of experience with what organizations go through trying to preserve video collections because the playback equipment is very expensive or no longer available. We have every reason to believe that the same will happen with photographs that have been accompanied by text on social media platforms. The caption \/ voice will be separated from the image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We really wanted to make the point with this book, that if a photograph has a caption, the caption is always going to have the last word because it changes the way you experience the image.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n Photographs from the Caption This<\/em> project<\/p>\n\n\n\n A two-page spread from the Caption This<\/em> book<\/p>\n\n\n\n We always write these captions for our family albums from a contemporary point of view: \u201cthis is me\u201d. But while we are doing this, we are already thinking of the fact that someone will have the album in question 50 years later. So the temporality of these photographs and these albums is mesmerising to me. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Most of the captions are directed at family and friends that you are sharing the photos with. Sometimes there are albums where it is clear another generation of the family \u2013 a family member who inherited the album - has written additional text. I\u2019m not sure how that could happen today with apps and online platforms because, say, 50 years from now you would need the right equipment to be able to add to the narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, we did an exhibition of <\/em>Caption This<\/em> at the Houston Center of Photography. We purposely wanted to add dimension to the book with an exhibition and encourage dialogue about text and image. We made large prints to engage viewers about the difference between seeing a picture on the screen versus a picture in a book versus a picture on a wall. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n From the exhibition titled Caption This at the Houston Center of Photography, on view from November 1st to November 19th, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paige and you created a book series covering people kissing, fishing, knitting. I love the idea because these really banal images are showcasing people doing the most everyday stuff they can do in front of a camera. What inspired you to work with these photographs? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Our goal is to keep our archive active and create a context about the relationship between vintage vernacular photography and contemporary life. Knitting came about because after my mother died, it felt like a good way to honor her \u2013 she was an avid knitter, which made me as a kid what I call \u2018a knitter watcher\u2019. I don\u2019t knit and honestly it was boring to watch her knit! It occurred to me that a person knitting is an unlikely topic for a photograph. There is an interesting social history about knitting during the World Wars. Women, children, and men all knit! And now knitting is popular again! It became clear the book could be an interesting way to talk about photographs you would least expect to be interesting and yet had a rich social history and was about people in the act of creating something. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the kissing book, our idea was to shine a light on how different photographing people kissing was in the 1900s compared to now. Kissing was something that you were not supposed to do in public. It was forbidden and photographs of people kissing in the early days of photography were scandalous! Now everybody wants their kiss to be captured on the jumbotron screens in sports stadiums! Making the People Fishing<\/em> book was fun because I don't fish but I love the many trick and souvenir photos related to fishing and the idea that a photograph is proof of the catch. So these books \u2013 People Kissing: A Century Of Photographs<\/em><\/a>, People Fishing: A Century Of Photographs<\/em><\/a>, and People Knitting: A Century Of Photographs<\/em><\/a> \u2013 were a way to express the appreciation of the pictures and how people related to them then and now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We love making books and hope to work with a publisher to make a book our about PhotoCircus<\/em> collection and how the objects and images relate to contemporary life!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n Unidentified women fishing, left to right: Lake George, N.Y., ca. 1910; Point Isabel, Texas, ca. 1925; Miami Beach, Fla., ca. 1945. from the book People Fishing: A Century Of Photographs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you have an interest in the digital aspect of everyday imaging?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Yes, because it is all branches of the photographic tree. People aren't taking more pictures now. People have been taking billions of photographs for decades. We're just seeing more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since most of all photographs being made now are digital, we are making an extra effort to share our collection. We are taking PhotoCircus<\/em>, out of the studio and on the road! With so much digital imagery and so many tools, we want to share what people have done in decades past to commemorate memory, to personalize their everyday activities and to document their lives. And all the surprising novelties and innovations! <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, I always thought disposable cameras came about in the 1970s. Did you know, the first disposable camera was created in 1948! We like to give people the opportunity to see items where photographs transcend their traditional pictorial role and become central to social, artistic, and cultural narratives. The objects range from personalized photo-jewelry and sculptural pieces to hand-altered photos and carnival photo booth images. Each piece in our collection, like the early disposable cameras tells a story, reflecting the diverse ways in which photography has permeated everyday life and influenced popular culture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n PhotoCircus collection on the road<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is one particular video I found really unique. It's an interview with the Polaroid founder from his early years. The fact that he describes why he wants to create a pocket camera saying he wants to have an apparatus for people that they don\u2019t only use when they want to take images but have it with them all the time. He already knew what would happen with us having a camera in our pockets. I find his vision really interesting \u2013 looking back from a time when we all have the camera he described.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n It is interesting! Photography, like any great language, is adaptable to many different forms tools and uses. The impulse to make cameras faster and self-developing to be portable, convenient and to share the moment has always been present in photography. The magic of self-developing cameras! We love photography related kits, and, in our collection, we have the 1948 self-developing, Speed Graphic Camera. The camera was bakelite and produced 2 x 3-inch images on direct positive paper. There was a sliding rod that moved the exposed image to a holder than there was a developing tank \u2013 it was a mini laboratory! The same year, Edwin Land created the revolutionary Land Camera. All the ingenuity and experimentation with cameras and different photographic forms relates directly to today\u2019s digital and AI innovations. In every decade there will be more experimentation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n A Graflex magazine ad from 1948<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the PhotoCircus collection<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shifting our conversation a bit: what I keep seeing is that a lot of museums have vernacular photography in their collection, in their art collection in some cases. These photographs are safekept, but they rarely seen by people, by visitors \u2013 and I want to add here that even though it is often the case, there are great exceptions! So the museum is doing the safekeeping part \u2013 and it's super important thinking in the long run. But the showcasing part is often lacking. What is your own experience regarding the collections you moved into museums? <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Good topic. Our first collection of vintage photograph albums is now in the permanent collection at the International Center of Photography in New York. We had a wonderful experience with the curator at the time, Brian Wallis (now the Director at Center for Photography, Kingston). Over the last several years there has been more research done on many of the albums, which is great but unfortunately, they rarely get displayed or included in exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the time came to think about where we wanted our second collection, PhotoMania,<\/em> to go we thought that what our collection has to offer is a rigorous artistic and curatorial approach and we wanted it to be acquired by a museum in which our collection would add to the permanent collection not just extend what they already have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We had a wonderful dialogue with the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. We appreciate and admire their groundbreaking collection of photography and we all agreed our collection would enhance the breadth of their collection. Instead of going the route of having an exhibition of our newly accessioned material we asked the material from our collection be included in every rotation of the permanent collection. We wanted the pieces to dialogue with other photographic styles and time periods. It was great to work with the photography curators there and to see this idea come to fruition. The only downside for us is that by not having a collection exhibition we didn\u2019t get to participate in a catalogue, education, or online programming where the material could be shared beyond the museum walls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your question is very much in our minds because we are thinking about the importance of sharing our new collection and generating community and dialogue about the lesser-known aspects of photography and its history. This past Fall, we took our PhotoCircus<\/em> roadshow to Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, where we were guest artists teaching beginner and advanced level photo students and to the Buffalo Prescott Foundation in Detroit, Michigan and to the Center for Photography in Kingston, New York, where we were part of their \u2018Meet The Artist\u2019 series. We\u2019ve seen from our experiences with sharing the collection that vernacular photography inspires people to think about their own artistic process and different ways you can make photographs and tell stories. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/everydayphotography.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-14-at-9.57.41-1024x843.png\")
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