Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

Although Eastman Company’s initial advertise-
ments of the Brownie cameras emphasized its per-
fect suitability for children, such promotion likewise
underscored the camera’s inherent simplicity for all
amateur users, young and old alike, as well as its
natural associations with the notions of adventure
and imagination. Its removal of the need to under-
stand the technical aspects of photographic proces-
sing and printing furthermore helped to introduce
the snapshot to a vast array of new practitioners,
who produced a myriad of images of family life,
travel, leisure, and work, largely marked by an infor-
mal spontaneity as yet unseen in the history of the
medium. A new element of the everyday entered into
photography’s vernacular, which stood in opposi-
tion to both the rare occasion of the family portrait
and the elevated concerns of the photographic artist.
Yet the snapshot’s thorough saturation in con-
temporary popular culture, with its origins in these
turn-of-the-century amateur practitioners, has been
met with both chagrin and critical interest. While
considered far outside the purview of the art estab-
lishment by some, the last few decades have like-
wise seen the snapshot made the subject of scholarly
attention and museum exhibition, while the sim-

ple aesthetic potential of the Brownie camera has

been utilized by artists such as photographer Wil-

liam Christenberry.

KARENJenkins

Seealso:Camera: Point and Shoot; Eastman Kodak

Company; Vernacular Photography

Further Reading

Coe, Brian.Kodak Cameras: The First Hundred Years.

Hove, East Sussex: Hove Foto Books, 1988.

Coe, Brian and Paul Gates.The Snapshot Photograph: The

Rise of Popular Photography 1888–1939. London: Ash &

Grant, Ltd., 1977.

Cox, Palmer.The Brownies: Their Book. New York: Apple-

ton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1887.

Ford, Colin, ed.The Story of Popular Photography. North

Pomfret, Vermont: Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1989.

Lothrop, Jr., Eaton S.A Century of Cameras: From the

Collection of the International Museum of Photography

at George Eastman House. New York: Morgan & Mor-

gan, Inc./Dobbs Ferry, 1973.

West, Nancy Martha. ‘‘Operated by Any School Boy or

Girl: The Marketing of the Brownie Camera.’’ In

Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia. Charlottesville & Lon-

don: University Press of Virginia, 2000.

FRANCIS JOSEPH BRUGUIE

`

RE

American

Francis Bruguiere produced some of the most avant-garde photography experiments of the early twentieth century. Always drawn to the abstract, Bruguiere blended the sharp lines of modernism
with a passion for darkroom effects. Until he
found his own voice, however, Bruguiere’s first explorations were in a more traditional vein and thus largely neglected in the photographic canon today. Perhaps this censure was also due to Bru- guiere’s frequent collaborations combined with his
late involvement with one of the premiere move-
ments to establish photography as a fine art, Alfred
Stieglitz’s Photo-Secession. Nevertheless, Bruguie`re
forged a unique vision that did not end with the
demise of Stieglitz’s group, but began after it.

Bruguie`re was born to parents of French and

Spanish heritage in 1879 in San Francisco, Califor-

nia. From a wealthy background, he attended a

private school in the East and toured Europe. In

1901, he met and married Eliza Jones, a Broadway

actress, who bore him a son three years later. In

1905, Bruguie`re visited New York. Instead of being

drawn to the enigmatic Stieglitz, as many Photo-

Secessionists were, he was instead drawn to Frank

Eugene. Originally a painter, Eugene was known

for incorporating liberal handwork into his nega-

tives and prints and was often criticized for his

extreme techniques. At Eugene’s encouragement,

Bruguie`re began to investigate photography as an

art form and opened a studio in 1906. The two

remained friends and corresponded for the rest of

their lives.

BRUGUIE`RE, FRANCIS JOSEPH