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Vernacular Architecture

A recent series of articles on Mike Johnson's blog, http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/
(can't figure out how to link to the exact articles, but look at the archives for August 20, 21, and 25) on what to photograph at hot rod shows and vernacular architecture has got me puzzled. The articles talked about what to notice at such shows (folding seats and foam beer can holders), what to shoot (details -- it's too crowded for anything else to work), and concluded that this is a fairly unsatisfactory photographic experience.
Carl Weese put the last nail in the coffin, saying that while he loved to shoot vernacular architecture (country churches and drive-in theaters, for examples), hot rods, well-designed gardens, and new buildings were just too finished to be interesting to him.

Now I get a kick out of exploring the nuances of vernacular architecture, too. After studying Weese's drive-ins -- he's really got a Jones for them, three web portfolios -- I took a field trip to the ruins of the one drive-in that I know of in Israel and found, cast in concrete and rusty steel, our native building materials, a perfect replica of the wooden, white-painted ticket booth entry gate that you would expect to find anywhere in New England. And I am more inspired by Alain Briot's Rock Art pictures, made by unknown native americans an unknown time ago, than by his shafts of light in Antelope Canyon. But where does vernacular architecture stop? And what comes next?

The Bechers in their teaching program in Duesseldorf, insisted that every student master the collection of a vernacular form. Andreas Gursky took this to its limits by doing a project on Pfoertner ("gate-keepers" or security guards), who sit at night, in pairs so that they can keep an eye on each other, at the front desks of office buildings. See Figs 21-24 in his MOMA book.

So why aren't hot rods a vernacular architecture? They are certainly not the products of an MFA program. Has anyone managed to cut through the circus aspects and bring out this side of them (recently or historically)?

scott
 

Don Lashier

New member
When I read comments like this the first thing I do is to look at the work of the person making the comments. Looking at Mike Johnston's hot rod photos I see little or nothing creative or artistic about them so tend to dismiss his thoughts. While the subject (hot rods and/or classic cars) is hackneyed with clearance tables at bookstores loaded with beautifully photographed examples, nevertheless anything with bright colors, sexy curves, chrome, and intricate mechanics certainly offers much greater possibilities for the creative mind that what Mike presents, even when photographed in a non-staged environment such as a hot rod show. True, without control of the background and stage, most shots might be limited to relative closeups or detail, but imo his examples don't even begin to display the possibilities even in such an uncontrolled venue showing little attention to form, composition, lighting, perspective, etc.

Carl Weese put the last nail in the coffin, saying that while he loved to shoot vernacular architecture (country churches and drive-in theaters, for examples), hot rods, well-designed gardens, and new buildings were just too finished to be interesting to him.

This is a very unenlightened view - practically anything with form and tonality should inspire the creative photographer and if the subject is already a work of art this should not diminish the possibilities, but just increase them. Now if you're just taking a straight-on shot (as these two photographers seem prone to do) then this may not be the case. Maybe it's just me but I find Carl Weese's country church shot uninspired also - not much more than a snapshot, if that. I won't even comment on his "wildflowers".

It is not my norm to so harshly criticize the work of others (and I've gone easy here :), but when one makes such dismissive statements about the subject matter, imo one opens oneself up for criticism of the illustrative works.

I think the vernacular (whether architecture or hot rod) offers particular possibilities simply because it is familiar and has exceptional power to evoke memories and emotions. It also presents particular challenges to portraying the subject in a fresh and creative light.

edit: corrected grammar ;)

- DL
 
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Colin Jago

New member
Don Lashier said:
This is a very unenlightened view - practically anything with form and tonality should inspire the creative photographer.........
- DL

I'm not sure about the use of the word should here, but if it was could, I would be wholly in agreement. The subject matter and what the artist does with it are independent.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Colin Jago said:
I'm not sure about the use of the word should here, but if it was could, I would be wholly in agreement. The subject matter and what the artist does with it are independent.
Colin,

Had Don written "This is a very unenlightened view - practically anything with form and tonality should inspire a photographer," then I would agree with your assertion that the word "could" would better replace Don's choice of the word "should" instead.

However, this was not the context. Don referred to a "creative photographer". I call such people "creatives". This implies a professional photographer who can deliver on an assignment by using his/her imagination.

Creatives have a giant Cathedral in which they demonstrate, to themselves, possibilities that, in an instant, can assign composition, meaning and relevance that others would never think of.

A creative has thus ability to intuitively extract meanings even in the parts, textures, shapes and situation of things.

I believe that a true creative photography should indeed be able to extract meaning from shapes, textures, tonality and so forth. That, after all is what defines their art!

I expect a pilot to land his plane, an obstetrician to deliver an infant and a creative photographer to be inspired by anything and everything that has form and tonality. The problem is not getting inspired; good ideas are ten a penny.

The issue here then is not getting inspired but rather to be able to carry one idea to completion!

So Don is, IMHO, correct using the word "should".

Scott,

Do you know the "nail in the coffin" metaphor doesn't really work where you are? People are buried directly in the earth as the land is holy! Besides, "nail in the coffin" has a sense of uneeded security. What's going to happen? The corpse will escape?

Now that would be vernacular!

Asher
 

Colin Jago

New member
Imagination

Asher Kelman said:
However, this was not the context. Don referred to a "creative photographer". I call such people "creatives". This implies a professional photographer who can deliver on an assignment by using his/her imagination.

Asher

Asher,

I would be very dubious about automatically associating idea of creativity with the idea of professionals and assignments.

Further, even the most creative imaginative people around are not turned on by every situation. There are photographers, for example, who need people in their photographs and are just cold to inanimate subjects - no matter how much form and light they exhibit.

I remain very sceptical about using the word "should" in any context where imagination and art are involved.
 

Mary Bull

New member
Asher,
At last I'm starting to get a handle on the meaning of the word "vernacular," as it's employed in this thread!

Quoting Asher's comment to Scott:
Do you know the "nail in the coffin" metaphor doesn't really work where you are? People are buried directly in the earth as the land is holy! Besides, "nail in the coffin" has a sense of uneeded security. What's going to happen? The corpse will escape?

Now that would be vernacular!

Thanks a million for the picture you put into my mind of the escaping corpse! <thankful that I'm reading in daylight, at present>

Seriously, I truly am trying to be instructed here about what "vernacular" is, as photographers use the word. I liked Scott's post immensely, when I first read it yesterday.
 

Mary Bull

New member
So why aren't hot rods a vernacular architecture? They are certainly not the products of an MFA program. Has anyone managed to cut through the circus aspects and bring out this side of them (recently or historically)?

Scott, I haven't seen any that fit my understanding of what you mean, in images of hot rods. But for motorcycles, have a look at Dierk's "Hamburg: Motorrad-Gottesdienst 2006" gallery .
http://foto.write4u.de/EOS/MoGo/

I like for instance, image no.37, just to pick an example.

No. 04, with the traffic cones giving depth and the old and new Hamburg architecture in the background also might be considered vernacular.

Or am I misunderstanding what you're discussing in your post?
 
Motorcycles are a good case to look at. I'll take a longer look at Dierk's gallery, as well as Danny Lyon's "Bikeriders" from the 1960s and see how they compare. The notion of a "blessing of the bikes" occurs in both works. Thanks for the link, but right now my day job is calling...

I think a vernacular architecture is a design style and a class of objects designed by real people without academic or other elevated leadership. So the word applies to the objects and says something about the people who build them, elegantly and with an implicitly shared sense of appropriate form. Observing such a process raises interesting questions about what is in the minds of these people (500-years ago rock artists, for example).

Hot rods in the 40's through 60's were vernacular, indigenous to southern California lakebeds and drive-ins. But I don't know about now. Perhaps one or several priesthoods have arisen to specify the most highly regarded attributes by now. I was wondering if it was this, or an element of intellectual snobbery that was causing hot rod shows to be dissed so emphatically.

scott
 

Mary Bull

New member
Thanks for further explaining the concept we're discussing.
Motorcycles are a good case to look at. I'll take a longer look at Dierk's gallery, as well as Danny Lyon's "Bikeriders" from the 1960s and see how they compare. The notion of a "blessing of the bikes" occurs in both works.

I did a google on Danny Lyon and found a book, in print, *The Bikeriders*. I'm sorely tempted to order it. http://www.angelfire.com/ct/halevi/bikeriders.html

Thanks for the link, but right now my day job is calling...

Ah, we all do have to earn the rent.

Looking forward to the next time you are at leisure to post.
 

Alain Briot

pro member
I find the use of the word vernacular uninspiring. It wouldn't come to my mind to call my images of rock art vernacular. Images from the past, for example, is much more inspiring to me.

What we call things and how we name what we do has a tremendous impact on our creative outcome.
 

Mary Bull

New member
I find the use of the word vernacular uninspiring. It wouldn't come to my mind to call my images of rock art vernacular. Images from the past, for example, is much more inspiring to me.
I thought it must be some technical term in general use when I first read Scott's post. The field of photography as art is a completely new one for me--I have no background to distinguish the vocabulary of the field from more general meanings of words like this.

I had encountered rock art of the past as I read about the Hopi and Navajo Indians in connection with linguistics, and in connection wih archaeology and anthropology--in archaeology it was being called "petroglyphs."

I like your photos of it very much, Alain. Truly awesome--sends shivers down my spine like the photos of the cave paintings in France I've seen.

What we call things and how we name what we do has a tremendous impact on our creative outcome.
I certainly do believe you are right about this. That is why I was writing in another thread that artists in photography are also artists with words--or at least, they aspire to be.

It takes the creativity of a poet for a graphics artist--I mean a photographer, a painter, a sculptor, even a weaver or a quilt maker--to put a good title to his creation.
And that only scratches the surface of the many ways that makers of images need to be careful also in how they use words.

I am immensely impressed with the skills in language use of the artists in photography I've been reading here.

Of course, just as with pictures, a person can produce the occasional dud.

So--"vernacular" is not a technical term in general use by artist-photographers?
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Alain,

Yes, vernacular does have a taint of disrespect at first glance; the opposite is the intention. I believe it’s meaning is to uplift the so-called ordinary where there has been a set of works made outside the realm of the celebrated world we live in.

Of course once the art form/class is recognized and becomes "mass produced" because it is now recognized and has, in itself, commercial value, such exploitation may indeed become demeaning.

Of course, we know little about the civilizations that produced rock painting. I doubt that at the time they would have been classed as "vernacular" since, in France, for example, it is likely that only highly trained artists, perhaps priests or shamans had those advanced skills.

http://www.culture.gouv.fr:80/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

This painting alone would be considered today as a masterpiece of an expert artist:

http://www.culture.gouv.fr:80/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

The rock paintings in the USA might or might not be of the same etiology. I think we might need to know a culture before we can apply such a context-dependant term so far back in art history.

Still, Scott was particularly careful in reference to the rock paintings we have come to enjoy today; I quote with my emphasis:

"I think a vernacular architecture is a design style and a class of objects designed by real people without academic or other elevated leadership. So the word applies to the objects and says something about the people who build them, elegantly and with an implicitly shared sense of appropriate form. Observing such a process raises interesting questions about what is in the minds of these people (500-years ago rock artists, for example)."

So essentially there is no disrespect except we are left with the real seemingly harsh word, "vernacular" which, although imperfect and at first glance, lowly, in fact works. But that, after all, is vernacular art.

Asher
 

Alain Briot

pro member
I do not thing there is any disrespect in the original post. I am simply commenting on my own artistic approach. Calling my subject "vernacular" does not inspire me in the least!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Of course, Alain, because you are a trained and educated artist. It is not meant for you at all!

Asher
 
Alain Briot said:
I am simply commenting on my own artistic approach. Calling my subject "vernacular" does not inspire me in the least!

From my reading of Alain's statements about how he creates his art and his objectives in visualizing, taking, printing, and showing a picture, I think I understand his reaction. He would agree, I hope, that the much of the power of a picture incorporating rock art comes from the fact that it is an image not merely from the past, but made by human hands in the past and expressing human aspirations and beliefs of the past. But he goes on to make the single strongest image that he can of that piece of art from the past in its present setting, and seems to focus primarily on the individual picture. (He has, of course, won awards for portfolios of rock art, in which I am sure that the individual works reinforce each other and make the whole stronger than the sum of its parts, but that doesn't seem to be his usual approach. Alain please correct me, if I am going too far here.)

The term "vernacular" tends to occur within a very different, more "conceptual" approach to art in which the interactions between multiple images are considered as or more important than the individual images themselves. I think in Carl Weese's drive-ins (check them out as jpegs at www.carlweese.com, but remember that his original prints are usually platinum prints and not well represented on the web) some of the pictures are quite lovely, and others are merely illustrative. But a pattern emerges, and if you ever went to a drive-in, in late summer, at the age of 18, or when younger, with your whole family to see a Hollywood musical..., well, stuff comes back to you.

The current definers of this style are Berndt and Hilla Becher, who for over thirty years captured the vanishing industrial artifacts of the Ruhr region and eventually all of the major European rustbelts omnivorously, but with a very sophisticated appreciation of the variations and nuances they encountered. They also developed a style of grid presentation (5x5 or larger arrays of similar, related objects) which is still fashionable. Gursky's Pfoertner are a gentle, appreciative satire of this style. I find their grids intriguing, and my six-year-old son loves to look at books of water towers, gas tanks, and mine overheads but I assume that many people will find the material, reduced to this extent, just bewildering or boring. And I can't imagine Alain presenting his work in a 5x5 grid!

scott
 

Don Lashier

New member
Another good example of finding art in the ordinary is Rondal Partridge's photographs of the Daly City Doelger (tickytacky) houses. My recollection is that Ansel Adams also has some Daly City examples but I could be wrong.

- DL
 

Mary Bull

New member
I'm finally beginning to be educated about this matter.
Found a very helpful page with Google.
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2001/gursky/

It tells a bit about the Bechers, too.

Thank you so very much, Scott, for letting me learn from you.

@Alain, and from you, too. There is so much beauty available to me on my computer screen, not to mention what's afforded me one-on-one in the natural world, that I can hardly take the time to sleep or to eat any more.
 

Don Lashier

New member
scott kirkpatrick said:
Are you thinking of Robert Adams? He could compose whole symphonies out of ticky-tacky.

Malvina Reynolds, made popular by Pete Seeger iirc
Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same.

There’s a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one.

And they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses all went to the university, Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same.

And there’s doctors and there’s lawyers, and business executives.

And they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry, And they all have pretty children and the children go to school.

And the children go to summer camp and then to the university, Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family.

In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

edit: Pete Seeger sings "Little Boxes"

- DL
 
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Alain Briot

pro member
scott kirkpatrick said:
Alain please correct me, if I am going too far here.)
scott

You can go as far as you can -- I have no problem with that whatsoever. However, personally, I do not critique my own work -- I just create the work. In my approach the artist does the art and the he critics do the critique. Do note that "critique" in my view isn't necessarily negative. It can be positive as well, which I take your comments to be. What I mean by critique is a commentary on my work that is analytical in nature. This is the part I do not engage in at the present time. If you want me to engage in a discussion of my work, it will have to be at the level of inspiration, vision, personal style, technique, or teaching. That is, areas that come up before or during the creation process and not after the work is created. Once the work is created my work is over. I can teach others how to do what I do, but I will not comment in a critical manner on my own work. Why this position? Simply because making critical commentaries of my own work stifles my creativity.
 

Diane Fields

New member
Alain Briot said:
Simply because making critical commentaries of my own work stifles my creativity.

I surely understand that. I was a textile artist for many years doing intensely juried shows mostly on the east coast. I really felt that I 'created' and the buyers determined if they liked my work. Of course the juries certainly would have to be considered 'critics' I suppose but if you tried to decipher what they 'liked' you would go crazy (and, like Alain, that would have stifled my creativity). Better to just do your creative work to suit yourself.

Diane
 

Don Lashier

New member
Don Lashier said:
Malvina Reynolds, made popular by Pete Seeger iirc


edit: Pete Seeger sings "Little Boxes"

- DL

Hmmm, interesting that MS Encarta blocks this with Firefox. Typical MS tactics - I hope they marginalize themselves right off the Internet.

But in any case, it's a great song and early commentary on modern (american) culture. It was on Pete Seeger's first album. FWIW the first of the "ticky tacky boxes" is now a national historic landmark.

One of Partridge's Daly City photographs
and another of my favorites - "New Chevy" which I suppose qualifies as vernacular also.

- DL
 

Mary Bull

New member
Don Lashier said:
Hmmm, interesting that MS Encarta blocks this with Firefox. Typical MS tactics - I hope they marginalize themselves right off the Internet.
Blocked in Opera, too. Page says:
"This media item will not play in the Internet software you are currently using"

So I guess I'll have to do a search to see if I can find a CD to buy which includes it.

[But in any case, it's a great song and early commentary on modern (american) culture. It was on Pete Seeger's first album.
Well, that info gives me a leg up. Thanks, Don.

FWIW the first of the "ticky tacky boxes" is now a national historic landmark.
Worth a lot.

I like this one very, very much. Thanks, Don.

and another of my favorites - "New Chevy" which I suppose qualifies as vernacular also.
I'm still learning. I think it does. "Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie" and all that.
 
Don Lashier said:
FWIW the first of the "ticky tacky boxes" is now a national historic landmark.

and "New Chevy" which I suppose qualifies as vernacular also.

- DL

Interesting digression. I've always found Sunset kinda charming with all the false fronts but I didn't realize that the same organization did Daly City. It's Daly City (and in the east, the several Levittowns) that I would associate with "ticky-tacky" but it is interesting to see that the basic idea, and the front-and-center garage, which persists to the present day, dates back to the 1920's.

Incidentally, just one of the three Levittowns (in PA) had 17,000 housing units, so I suspect the total build by Mr. Levitt reached around 50,000 houses, more than the 40 years of Doelger houses.

Since these define growing up for lots of people that I have known, they would certainly qualify as a basis for vernacular art.

scott

p.s. does "New Chevy" remind you of a Dorothea Lange picture?
 

Don Lashier

New member
scott kirkpatrick said:
p.s. does "New Chevy" remind you of a Dorothea Lange picture?

Well, Rondal Partridge worked as an assistant for Dorothea Lange, so it's not surprising.

In fact Dorothea Lange is Rondal Partridge's mother!

- DL
 

Mary Bull

New member
Malvina Reynolds, made popular by Pete Seeger iirc


edit: Pete Seeger sings "Little Boxes"
- DL
Hmmm, interesting that MS Encarta blocks this with Firefox. Typical MS tactics - I hope they marginalize themselves right off the Internet.

I've had a listen now. Found the albums *Ear to the Ground* by Malvina and *Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits* at Amazon.com. In their link "More product details" one can listen to samples from selected songs on the albums. I clicked on "Little Boxes" in both, and I liked what I heard. Have ordered both albums.

To listen to when I'm viewing Vernacular-based Art.
 
Don Lashier said:
Well, Rondal Partridge worked as an assistant for Dorothea Lange, so it's not surprising.

In fact Dorothea Lange is Rondal Partridge's mother!

- DL
Almost. Lange had two children from her first marriage, to Maynard Dixon, then married Paul Taylor after they began working together on their joint study of the Depression era. She was a close friend of Roi Partridge and Imogen Cunningham throughout her life, and their son, Rondal Partridge, became her assistant in the 1930s. Rondal Partridge's daughter, Elizabeth is Lange's biographer. A small world, Berkeley.

scott
 
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