the american snapshot

snap·shot ('snap-shät) n. an impression or view of something brief or transitory.


The "American Snapshot"... the phrase keeps popping up of late; in magazines, blogs, books and museum exhibitions.

The photo above was taken by my father, of my grandfather. I have no idea of the year and I wish my father were here today to tell me more about this photo and others that he took. Instead, I can only wonder about the camera, what he thought as he composed the shot and how the film was processed.

I am intrigued with the snapshot - what does and what does not qualify? Obviously, a formal portrait would not; would most of the stunning photographs in NatGeo? I doubt it - they are carefully conceived, composed and produced. And certainly, just any picture, snapped without regard to light and composition is not what I am referring to either.

More to come...