Snapshot vs. 'Art Photograph'

Everyday people snap pictures of moments in their lives so as to preserve their memories; there must be billions upon billions of pictures of families, animals, vacation spots, self-portraits, and other situations deemed necessary to preserve. Aristocratic families (in the past) have abused their wealth by taking family portraits to help preserve the generations; now, family portraits are often seen in households, along with other snapshots and 'art photographs' hanging along the walls. No longer is photography an aristocratic privilege, but rather a form of enjoyment. When did the art of photography switch from being just an aristocratic and artistic privilege to being not only that, but also an activity that anyone can enjoy?

What defines an 'art photograph'? An art photograph is a photograph that can only be achieved through imagination and creativity. One might argue then, that the family portraits of old black and white photography are not artistic photographs, for they seem to have no other composition than families forced together to stare at a flashing light and be marked down on a page for history. A photography circa 1925 entitled Family Portrait and taken by Addison Scurlock can be seen to the right; this is only of those typical family portraits, where a father and a mother sit stoically with their child standing around them. By their clothes (the man's suit and tie, the boys uniform, the mother's silky looking dress, and the girls own outfit,) one may presume that this family is part of the aristocracy. If one was to argue that this was not an art photograph, one would be mistaken; the composition of this photograph explains that the photographer must have positioned them in order to take this portrait. The family is positioned in the center of the image, creating a balanced composition; the people are placed in order of adult male, young male, adult woman, young woman; the backdrop was considered before taking the image, for it allows the people to stand out and for the focus to be on the family and not the room; the lighting is correct in order to recognize the families features; these things cannot be captured in the same photograph without some thought. In the early days of photography, when cameras were not easy to come by, it is safe to presume that most photographs were 'art photographs'; carefully considered works of art.

To the left is an image by Jacques Henri Lartigue, title unknown. This image has composition just as it appears to have a thoughtful meaning. The women looking one way in a line while a dog trots the complete opposite, one man with a strong stride also not bothering to gaze the direction in which the women are. It seems to have been clearly thought out, the women seem to have been positioned, that is, until you know Lartigue's history. He was an amateur photographer, receiving his first camera from his father around the age of eight. How can a child as young as Lartigue was capture an image with such an elegant composition and lighting? Lartigue took snapshots of his family and friends, not bothering to think of a deeper meaning and of how the people were positioned. He probably considered light sources and how bright it was, for lighting is a mechanical part of photography- it determines how long to expose an image for. To the left, although at first glance, and also upon a deeper consideration of the images composition and formal properties, alludes to being an 'art photograph' as defined above. When remembering the age at which Lartigue was taking his photographs, and the immaturity at which he did so, it seems impossible that he could have considered the deep meaning that people seem to find in the image above right. The way that Lartigue captured this moment, makes the resulting photograph a 'snapshot.'

His other work also alludes in the same way. As he grew older, his photographs have the same appearance of deeper meaning and balanced formal properties. But also, as he grew older, he probably began to consider these more artistic sides to his photographs, if only in a minor way. To the right is another one of Lartigue's images, title also unknown. This image captures a moment in time, the release of an airplane into an open sky; the flight of a new creation. Despite the allusion of a hidden metaphor, this image can also be defined again as a snapshot. These 'snapshots' taken by Jacques Henri Lartigue seem to hold more artistic creativity than the family portrait discussed earlier. How can that be so if these photographs produced by Lartigue were taken on a whim by a privileged young boy and the others were sculpted to hold an air of elegance, aristocracy, and most importantly an artistic creativity?