Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

By Nik Stanbridge

The camera is a memory machine. And a legacy one. Photography is all about recording memories (or creating them) and building, whether you like it or not, a legacy. They, the memories and the legacy, slowly mature to become something bigger and more important over time. They become part of history; they create a historical record. Not always interesting or important, but there all the same. Not always visible or accessible, but there somewhere.

East Oxford (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)
Brittany, France (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)

As an aside though, for us as individuals though, that historical record is only going to exist via our physical output. I believe it’s fanciful to think that our nearest and dearest, our descendants, will have any desire, let alone the capability, to access our digital/online archives. I operate on the assumption that when I go, so does my online presence (when the renewals lapse); so does my Lightroom archive (far too labyrinthine for anyone to do anything with). My digital archive will be toast and I’m ok with that because I’m planning for it.

Market stall, Brittany, France (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)
Seafront at Ayr, Scotland (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, 510 Pyro)

I of course don’t take photos to create a legacy but I sincerely hope that it will have one. That’s not vanity, it’s pragmatism. I hope that my descendants are interested, fascinated even, in the photographic record I’m creating.

Getting back to the subject of vernacular photography, the great thing is, you’re probably already taking photographs that might, or will have, a historical interest. When I look back at some of my images, I can see that for a whole range of reasons they might be of interest in the future.

Jajce, Bosnia & Herzegovina (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)
Bombed house, Jajce, Bosnia & Herzegovina (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)

And it’s the most routine and mundane and seemingly unexciting things that will have the biggest impact. When you look you see. Have you noticed how frequently the shops in your local area change. They open, they go out of business, they change their displays, they change their branding above the door and so on. Petrol stations and similar utilitarian places close, get bulldozed, get replaced with new housing. Those trees near you that you think will always be there, they won’t. That waste-ground/field that will never be built on, it might. These tend to be the sorts of subjects that attract my eye; yours will be different but equally interesting. Eventually!

Kiosk, Balkans (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)
Derelict winter Olympic centre, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)

I didn’t really start this article intending it to be a memory manifesto, but I think what I’m gently alluding to is that whatever projects you’re engaged in, getting them into a printed form, even just one copy, could have lasting historical interest. How cool is that!

Ptuj, Slovenia (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)
Abandoned K67 kiosks, Croatia (Nikon L35AF, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)

Walker Evans, Stephen Shore, Eugène Atget, Bernd and Hilla Becker, Vivian Maier… there’s a nearly endless list of photographers who’s published work helps us see and learn about what has disappeared from our urban landscapes.

Sports pavilion, Tain, Scotland (Leica M3, Summaron 35/3.5, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)
Thurso, Scotland (Leica M3, Summaron 35/3.5, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)

There’s an interesting passage in William Boyd’s novel ‘Sweet Caress’ when the 1920s photographer protagonist says (and I paraphrase) that her decision to print is key to how she feels about an image and that in doing so, along with giving her prints titles, they live on in her mind “more easily and permanently” and are fixed in her “memory archive”. I believe this is also what I do with my favourite photographs; I bestow on them them printed permanence. Permanence and persistence through being a physical object.

Tain, Scotland (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)
Orkney, Scotland (Leica M3, Summicron 50/2 DR, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)

I do stress again, however, that ‘legacy’ isn’t the reason I do what I do. Not by any stretch of my imagination. It’s a potential but very possible side benefit that I have no control over. Ultimately what I’m saying, and to summarise, is that no matter how ordinary you think your photographs are, and whatever your reasons or motivation for making them, collecting them into printed zines or mini photobooks or prints or whatever, will give them an unforeseeable life far into the future.

Cafe, North Berwick (Leica M3, Summaron 35/3.5, Ilford FP4, Rodinal)

And here’s a parting thought: if you’re like me, you’ll always think that other photographers’ vernacular work is much more interesting than yours. Go figure that oxymoron.

I’m on Insta and I have a website too.

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About The Author

By Nik Stanbridge
I've always been drawn to the ordinary, the decaying and the mundane. For me, it’s always been about capturing what’s right there in front of us that we all walk past without really noticing. I look for what’s hidden in plain sight that's either transient, disappearing or so obvious we’ve all stopped seeing it. Much of my work is about rendering the commonplace abstract - from muddy tyre tracks to architectural details, to utility workers’ paint on the road. I'm sensitive to ordinariness, transience, evolution and decay and attempt to convey it in these calm and strong images that have solidity and an engagement with the world.
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Comments

Geoff Chaplin on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 18/11/2024

You're so right! Digital data can so easily become toast or is merely too plentiful for anyone to bother with. An album full of images will last and have interested viewers. Extrapolating from what you said photographing those historical buildings (so many images already) is less important than photographing the mundane (and objects of personal importance). Excellent article!
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Nik Stanbridge replied:

Comment posted: 18/11/2024

Thanks Geoff. “Too plentiful for anyone to bother with” completely sums up the modern digital ocean/swamp of images that are instantly forgettable (and forgotten).

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Curtis Heikkinen on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 18/11/2024

Thoughtful essay and excellent images as well. Congratulations on a very nice presentation!
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Nik Stanbridge replied:

Comment posted: 18/11/2024

Thanks Curtis. Kind of you to say so.

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Stefan Wilde on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 18/11/2024

I totally agree with your approach! Leaving something behind that is easily accessible - as a print - and gives testament of the world as you see it is marvelous. It is also something that hasn't been around long for the common person. Leaving a record behind was a prerogative of the great, rich or learned for centuries. So, history as we understand it knows an awful lot about very few people and much too little about the many. Photography is one way of changing that. Keep going! And I will start printing... One question though: How do you store your prints and are you making notes so people will know what the pictures show?
Thanks for sharing!
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Nik Stanbridge replied:

Comment posted: 18/11/2024

That’s it Stefan. Getting back to the physical photographic artefact - a print in one form or another. It’s also generational I think - anyone born digital will at some point come to the realisation, while looking at the obvious permanence of their parent’s photo albums, that looking at something tactile, in their hands, is an enriching experience. Storing and keeping notes… now there’s a challenge that needs addressing. Acid free boxes are my storage solution but I’m relying in future historians to deal with the what, where, when etc. That’s not ideal is it?

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Sasha Rose on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

A fantastic article and some beautiful photos! I often think of the same sentiment when taking photos of the fairly mundane, as our world becomes more and more Internet based it's so important to have photographs of what our cities and towns look like now, who knows what will be there in 50 years!
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Nik Stanbridge replied:

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

Thanks Sasha!

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Peter Roberts on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

A thoughtful article, Nik.
For some years now I've got into the habit of producing an annual photobook with which to bore family and friends. Nothing special, and certainly not arty, just the sort of thing that the likes of Photobox enable you to create online at a reasonable cost. Presentation is everything and I try to replicate to look of a traditional album by giving the chosen images white borders and putting them on black pages with an annotation of title and place.
These books have the additional advantages of tracking the progress of my photographic ability, such as it is, and of being more readily accessible than boxes of prints.
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Nik Stanbridge replied:

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

That’s such a great idea and would make a great article - I’m sure we’d all like to see how you do it and what images you choose. And as you say, books of curated images are so much (much!) better than boxes of prints.

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Daniel Castelli replied:

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

Peter, I’ve also done this for many years. I have experience in bookbinding, so I hand make a small volume of about 30 photos, bind them into a hardback book. It measures about 8x8. I’ll be starting the 2024 book right after the start of the new year.

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Bill Brown on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

Nik, I have lofty ideas about my collection of images but I have yet to create a singular way of showcasing any of it. I have a large flat file and countless photo paper boxes crammed with prints. On any print that reaches the stage of me cutting a rag mat to house it I write a short story on the back of the print. This story describes the moment and location of the photo and I also write the image #, film type, camera used, the paper type, printer used, ink set, and the date of printing. Yes it is time consuming but this is my way of saying, "this image is special to me". The photographer I have worked with for over 30 years is presently going through his Kodachrome archive and having scans produced. These chromes are from his world travels in the 1980's. He has pages of handwritten notes from that time with descriptions, dates and locations. I'm not exaggerating when I say many of these images are Nat Geo level of quality. Stunning. Before opening his portrait studio he tried out for Nat Geographic but wasn't accepted. Their loss but Dallas's and my gain. This work was all from the time before I met him in 1990. I've heard some of his stories but getting to see the actual work gives me a new and different insight into this longtime friend and mentor. Each persons vision is personal and special because no one else has walked in the same path. Hopefully I will someday be able to comment that I just produced my first photo book. Onward and upward.
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Nik Stanbridge replied:

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

In mounting and richly annotating your chosen, your most special images, you’re halfway towards the goal of that photobook. A lot further on than many of us ate in fact. It’s a high task to go back and do such annotations so doing them as a work in progress is quite something. That first photobook of yours should almost put itself together.

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Bill Brown replied:

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

Thanks Nik, I hope you're right about putting itself together. I get bogged down in minutiae so often and I don't complete a project. Been happening my whole life so I have to press through and I will!

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Kodachromeguy on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 19/11/2024

Welĺ reasoned Nik. A negative or transparency is like a piece of time. Photons affected the silver at a certain instant. A digital snap can be manipulated almost indefinitely. But if someone questions a print or a scan, you can show them the negative. There it is, the real photons from long ago.
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Paul Quellin on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 21/11/2024

Very thought provoking Nik. I know my printer just isn't doing enough mileage and the time to start is now, not as I keep telling myself ' when work calms down a bit'. Some unspecified point in the future is probably too late. Thank you.
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Nik Stanbridge replied:

Comment posted: 21/11/2024

It’s two sides of the same coin Paul… there’s always something more interesting to photograph that the plain old boring vernacular, and there’s always something more interesting to do that produce that photobook/print of one’s best images.

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Bill Brown on Spectacular Vernacular. Memory and Legacy.

Comment posted: 24/12/2024

Nik, I just finished reading your article again. So much of it hits home with me. Since my previous reply I've printed a Twelve days of Christmas photo set for my daughter who will be home for a short visit. Twelve photos spanning her 23 Christmases. So many special times together. I've referenced it before but I will say again how I love the sentiment in the song used in the 1970's Kodak ad campaign. Remember the times of your life sung by Paul Anka. This song sums it all up for me and my photographs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x5nv4R709w Great article!
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