Bruiloft 1940 - 1943

This is an anonymous photograph album, with gelatin silver prints, compiled at an unknown date. Look closely at the individual photographs, each with its own subject, such as a wedding or a group of swimmers. What unites them is that they are all of a particular type: vernacular photography, made by everyday people to document their own lives. The means of production here are critical. Gelatin silver prints came to dominate the market from the 1880s onward, because the process was relatively simple and cheap, requiring less exposure time than other methods. This brought photography within reach of a much wider public. Albums like these, full of unique moments, became increasingly common. While ‘high art’ photography often attempts to find the extraordinary in life, albums such as these tend to value the opposite: finding importance in the everyday. They show us that all making—even the most humble and common—is worth considering.