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Willis-Braithwaite, Deborah.VanDerZee: Photographer,
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993.VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY
At the close of the twentieth century, the definition of
vernacular photography was hotly contested. The
term suggests a common and casual visual rhetoric,
the everyday speech of the photographic image. And
by definition, it seems vernacular photographs would
most often be made by ordinary people—unskilled
amateurs instead of professional photographers—
and serve primarily utilitarian, social, or communica-
tive functions. And yet when it comes to deciding
which images, even which genres, fall into this cate-
gory, the issue becomes thornier than it initially
appears. Many have taken the approach of defining
vernacular photography in terms of what it is not. At
its broadest point, for example, vernacular photogra-
phy is an art historical term that sets vernacular
photography in opposition to art photography, as
comprising any photographic image that does not
qualify as art. This distinction is complicated, how-
ever, when vernacular photography is refashioned as
a form of outsider art and is exhibited in museums or
sold in galleries on the basis of its vernacular quality.
One of the premiere scholars on the subject, Geoffrey
Batchen, has tried to further define vernacular photo-
graphy as a perceived absence of such traditional
markers of photographic value as aesthetic merit,
creditable authorship, intellectual weight, clarity of
meaning, and good taste regardless of the status of
its maker. This negative construction then raises
questions about the limiting and arbitrary nature of
assumedly positive distinctions like ‘‘aesthetic value’’
or ‘‘good taste,’’ perhaps leading toward a more
vernacular-oriented history of photography rather
than tracing this history through a canon of master
professionals. Yet constructing vernacular photogra-
phy as an absence leaves the distinction of what the
term actually signifies frustratingly open ended.
Part of the confusion surrounding the term stems
from a difference of opinion as to what actually
determines a photograph’s vernacular status. Some
place emphasis on the photographer. If the photo-
graph is made by an amateur, it may claim vernacu-
lar status. This distinction would rule out a wide
variety of non-aesthetic genres, including scientific
imaging, photojournalism, and fashion photogra-
phy, but include the artistically-inclined work of
many skilled hobbyists. Others read the aesthetic of
the photograph as the determining factor; vernacular
photography is signified by a particularly naı ̈ve
visual style. But this distinction is highly subjective
and the wealth of visually arresting vernacular
photographs that have been canonized in private
art collections and museum exhibitions make a
clear distinction difficult to maintain. Perhaps the
most useful approach, and that taken by scholars
like Batchen and Elizabeth Hutchinson is to focus on
the ways that photographs are used, the codes of
practice that surround them, and their clusters of
meanings within quotidian contexts. This practical
approach is not without its complexities; it allows for
the inclusion of images being used ‘‘against the
grain’’ or against the genre codes and, as we will
see, encounters particular problems when used to
analyze vernacular photographs in high art contexts.
But it also places valuable emphasis on the practice
of everyday life and the way that photography has
become a vital part of that practice since its very
invention. By drawing attention to the depth and
breadth of photographic practice outside of the insti-
tution of art (or for that matter science, advertising,
journalism, fashion, etc.) this practically-oriented
approach points to the dramatic absence of verna-
cular studies within the history of photography while
at the same time affirming the positive qualities of
photographic culture in vernacular modes.
How, then, might one define vernacular photo-
graphic practice? The origin of the term ‘‘vernacu-
lar’’ is linguistic, referring to a local or regional
dialect or idiom. The first systemic use of the term
in relation to the visual arts emerges in the mid-
twentieth century to describe regional architectural
styles born out of practical sensibilities rather than
aesthetic traditions. In his seminal textArts in Mod-VANDERZEE, JAMES