Snapshot Versions of Life - Softcover

Chalfen, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0879723882 ISBN 13: 9780879723880

Publisher: Popular Press 2, 2008

Synopsis

Snapshot Versions of Life is an important foray into the culture of photography and home life from an anthropologist’s perspective. Examining what he calls “Home Mode” photography, Richard Chalfen explores snapshots, slide shows, family albums, home movies, and home videos, uncovering what people do with their photos as well as what their personal photos do for them.
    Chalfen’s “Polaroid People” are recognizable—if ironically viewed—relatives, uncles, aunts, and All-American kids. As members of “Kodak Culture” they watch home movies, take pictures of newborn babies, and even, in their darker moments, scratch out the faces of disliked relatives in group photographs. He examines who shoots these photos and why, as well as how they think (or don’t) of planning, editing, and exhibiting their shots. Chalfen’s analysis reveals the culturally structured behavior underlying seemingly spontaneous photographic activities. 

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Chalfen is professor emeritus of anthropology at Temple University and past president of the Society of Visual Anthropology. He is senior scientist at the Center in Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School. His publications include Turning Leaves and many widely cited articles.

Review:

"A pioneer in the study of family photos, or ''home mode photography,''as he called it,is American anthropologist Richard Chalfen. In this context it is worthcalling attention to his seminal 1987 book Snapshot Versions of Life, which apartfrom Pierre Bourdieu's work is one of the first comprehensive discussions ofthe potential of studying family photography. Talking from a research platform ofethnographic fieldwork on American middle-class family photography from theperiod 1940 to 1980, Chalfen argues that family photography must be seen as atthe same time a process and a ''doing,'' an act of communication and a''symbolic activity.'' This important book serves as a very generalintroduction to the field, seen from the viewpoint of ethnography and culturalstudies. Pointing, like Bourdieu also did, to the ''redundancy'' of the material,seeing it as ''a reaffirmation of cultural and structural values'' (p. 98),Chalfen at the same time introduces a whole range of important aspects or''modes'' from tourist photography to home movies. He calls his own book a''useful starting point'' (p. 162) on what he names ''Kodak culture'' andconcludes that ''comparative work is much needed'' (p. 162), for instancefocusing on questions such as ''Do members of other Western cultures or Easterncultures participate in Kodak culture in similar and familiar ways?''" (p.163). (Sandbye,M. (2014.) Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, 2014(6).)

About this edition

• Publisher: Popular Press 2
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0879723882
• ISBN 13: 9780879723880
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 222