values the idealized image of posed and performed
familial harmony within the domestic sphere over
the documentary reality of people ‘‘in the world’’
favored in earlier vernacular styles. And, West sug-
gests, by resituating the photograph from an activity
of the present to a trace of the past, Kodak estab-
lished photography as a form of historical narrative.
Through print advertising, the marketing of family
albums, and ingenious technological innovations like
the Autographic Kodak—which allowed the photo-
grapher to caption the negative while still in the
camera—Kodak pitched amateur photography as
theform of personal and familial record keeping.
By defining vernacular photography as a narrative
mode, Kodak ensured the perpetuation of photo-
graphic consumption over time, and West suggests,
fundamentally altered the cultural perception of per-
sonal photographs.
Other Vernacular Forms
With the growing accessibility of easy-to-use cam-
eras and the preponderance of snapshot oriented
accessories (like albums and frames), the photo-
graph has become a ubiquitous feature in most
homes in the developed world, and an essential
household item even in the less-developed nations.
But the vernacular consumption of photographs is
not limited to those produced by amateur, everyday
photographers. Professional portraits taken at wed-
dings, for holiday greeting cards, and on school
picture day routinely stand alongside snapshots in
family albums and frames on the mantelpiece.
Photo-postcards inscribed with personal missives
make their way from far away places and onto
refrigerator doors or bulletin boards. Novelty
photographic technologies like photobooths and
neoprint photo-sticker machines provide photo-
graphic souvenirs of a day out with friends to be
pasted into scrapbooks, tucked into the corners of
mirrors, or stuck on the back of cell phones. Thus,
just as the taking of a snapshot defines vernacular
photography through everyday photographic pro-
duction, so the use and display of photographs in
quotidian modes, regardless of their author, define
vernacular photographic consumption. In this vein,
scholars of vernacular photography have also been
drawn attention to the long history of incorporating
personally significant (if not personally authored)
photographs into everyday objects. As evidenced by
Geoffrey Batchen’s work on the morphology of
vernacular photography and photographic jewelry,
and the recentPop Photographicaexhibition at the
Art Gallery of Ontario (2003), the totemic nature of
the personal photograph as a physical trace of the
past has lent itself to the creation of objects that
incorporate photographs into their design. The ori-
gin of this practice may lie in the custom of keeping
early daguerreotype portraits in ornate cases to
preserve the fragile, mirror-like surface of the
image. These ornamented, portable daguerreotypes
were part image and part treasured keepsake, at
home either on a mantelpiece or tucked into a
breast pocket and carried around like a lucky
charm. Over time, the desire for photographic
mementos and the increasing availability of inex-
pensive photographic processes (in the form of tin-
types, ambrotypes, and cartes-des-visites) gave
birth to the Victorian obsession with photograph-
adorned domestic objects. Chess sets, pillows, fur-
niture, china, sewing kits, jewelry, and handbags (to
name only a few examples) became vehicles for
further integrating the photograph into the every-
day life of the home. And while they may not have
the same vintage aesthetic as Victorian era photo-
objects, more contemporary examples, like the
mantelpiece shrine comprising framed photo and
bronzed booties and the mug or T-shirt custom-
emblazoned with a family photo at the mall keep
this photo-object tradition alive and well even
today.
While such vernacular photo-objects more often
than not use professionally made photographs, they
carry with them many of the same qualities asso-
ciated with the snapshot. Photo-objects represent a
bond between the viewer and the subject. They are
implicated in the creation and preservation of mem-
ory, personal history, and identity. The images incor-
porated into these objects are iconic and idealizing,
rarely concerned with documentary realism. Perhaps
more dramatically than in the case of snapshots,
photo-objects also emphasize the quotidian presence
of photography in domestic spaces and emotional
lives. The images framed, decoupaged, silkscreened,
or stitched into everyday objects make photography
a literal part of everyday actions like eating, sleeping,
and playing. The insistent presence of the image in
these objects is such that the owner need not really
lookatit,somuchasusetheobject,touchitorhave
it nearby. This construction of the photograph-as-
object—a souvenir, a memento, or a touchstone for
memory—goeshandinhandwiththelackofcon-
cern for visual aesthetics so common to vernacular
photography. The presence of the image in the pri-
vate sphere, either in a frame or as a photo-object,
functions first and foremost to make the photo-
graphic subject present within the everyday life of
the home. Amateurish or professional, formal por-
trait or casual snapshot, Polaroid or silver gelatin
print, as long as the image can be incorporated intoVERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY