Vernacular Images

I began collecting snapshots and vernacular images in the early 1990s, drawn to the abundance of extraordinary images available at flea markets, garage sales, and antique stores for almost nothing. What others passed over, I couldn't stop looking at. Images made as personal memories, as ordinary records of ordinary moments, that in another context become something else entirely. The only value in the work is its aesthetic presence. That makes vernacular photography the purest proving ground for the eye.

I started a tradition in my home: a bowl placed in the entranceway filled with snapshots. When visitors came over, I would ask them to take one. Each snapshot left with a stamp on the back, “from the snapshot bowl of david raymond.” There are many of these scattered around the world now. The tradition eventually became an interactive work incorporated into two museum exhibitions.

The snapshots have also inspired my own work. Some of the pieces created from them are on this site under Other People's Pictures.

Two of the works on this page were included in The Subversive Eye: Surrealist and Experimental Photography from the David Raymond Collection at The Dalí Museum. Anonymous images, made by unknown hands, holding their place among major vintage prints. That is exactly the point.