ABSTRACT
Here is another typical snapshot: a boy and girl (brother and sister perhaps?) strolling happily down the beach (g. 3.3). Or at least this appears to be a typical snapshot but for the fact that it is in a 1952 advertisement for a Kodak camera (having been used for another campgain two years previously. Sontag emphasizes the ritual function of the snapshot in certifying familial bonds, but because of her ontological approach, she is far more interested in the qualities she can locate in the medium itself than in the social, cultural, and political inuences that construct its use. But images like this testify to the way that ritual photographic culture is externally constructed. Historical evidence suggests that many of the
aspects of snapshot culture we consider natural or inherent are, in fact, socially and commercially manufactured. Nancy Martha West has shown, for example, that snapshooting was rst associated with outdoor leisure activities like biking, skiing, and picnicking (West 2000). Only after Kodak began to advertise snapshot cameras as a means of documenting family life and emotional relations in the domestic sphere did snapshot photography gain such a poignant and important role in the chronicling of sentimental family histories. As an example of just such a promotional image, what is interesting about the photograph in this advertisement is that despite its conventional appearance, the image is simply too good to be a real snapshot. The subject is candid, but the children are too perfectly framed, shot in close-up and at eye level. Despite their proximity to the photographer they seem oblivious to his presence. In addition, their (fully visible) expressions and gestures are highly demonstrative of a kind of accord and mutual generosity that may be something of a rarity in real-life sibling interaction. This photograph, then, like any number of images circulated publicly through Kodak and Polaroid promotional material, popular photography manuals, print advertising, and even the photos lling empty picture frames at the store, presents a carefully constructed visual ideal, designed to direct and normalize our individual notions of what can and should be considered a ‘good snapshot’.
