The magic of a snapshot

                    (Adrian Burns collection)

There's magic in a snapshot, and at this junction in the evolution of the collecting and study of early images that's becoming clearer.

The daguerreotype reigns supreme as the early image that holds the most monetary value when all other things are equal. And as the earliest commercially viable form of photography there is little dispute that daguerreotypes open the farthest reaching historical portal. It is this look back, way back, that first turned me on to early photography, and the allure of the silver canvas still beckons for me.

But, please don't forget the snapshot. It is the last stop on the line that began with the laborious daguerreotype. But forget about photographs taken for art's sake. They can be wonderful and very valuable for their own reasons. But instead focus on the common photograph. The image not taken with art in mind, but that which is capable of being art because of happenstance, the creative mind of a working photographer or the special subject. Usually all three make a showing when the common photo is elevated to art.

Anyway, with dags we most see portraits. Plain sometimes. Rarely boring to me, but, yeah, a little boring sometimes. Of course there are the wonders, too. But on the whole, there are fewer dags, they took longer to produce and their creation involved a lot more rigamarole. Snapshots, on the other hand, lack that look back to the mid 19th century. They flourished in the first half of the 20th century. A time when some folks alive today were up and about.

But they exist in great quantities. And most important, they were created by the most absolute of amateurs, of those who didn't seek art, nor any pretense but to capture a flicker. It was rare that a flicker was intentionally captured in the early days of photography when dags were being made.

But snapshots, oh snapshots. That is nearly all they did! Today there are some that provide more than just a window into the past, but a beautiful and glimmering one. And because of their low cost, wide usage and acceptance, they proved the most fertile grounds for accidental art in photography.

(Adrian Burns collection)

Collectors have come to appreciate this, as snapshots, lonely, messily little thin, tiny snapshots - the type smooshed into a box at an auction, in some cases now elicit great demand from collectors.

Some pricy snapshots that sold on eBay in the past week:

Helen and Anna kiss: $175

 Gal Pals: $78.77

Boy & sculpture: $78.77

I'm beginning to see why. It is in the flickers that I can see beauty in photographs. The glimpses. Don't tell me that an epoch in a photo will be but a speck to me, as my emotional brain struggles to connect my own life experiences with such a swath. Ah, but a flicker. It is so tiny, I can identify with it, and yet still feel deep meaning. Meaning that I can wrap my brain around. That is what gets me in a photograph. No doubt you see this in the best of early images. I see it most in snapshots.

They are the height of the flicker among the vintage or antique photos. They are the most real, or at least the most real the most often. 

Don't overlook them in your hunt for old photos, those tiny slices of emotion from another time. They're bite sized and tasty as can be.

The love shack

(Adrian Burns collection)