Monday, July 20, 2009

The Beauty of Accidents, Part II

Click any image for larger view.


Click any image for larger view.




Click any image for larger view.


LAST APRIL 30, I DID A POST ABOUT PROCESSING ERRORS AND OTHER MISTAKES found in snapshot photography, courtesy of my good friend Robert Jackson. Robert is the collector whose work was shown at the National Gallery of Art with the book The Art of the American Snapshot. Robert was kind enough (once again) to share with us another batch of snapshot mistakes, blunders and mishaps, proving once again that every once in a while a photo mistake can be worthy of a second look.

Before the age of the digital camera, there were many things that could go wrong after you shot your images. Drugstore film and print processing presented a myriad of potential disasters—things like wrong temperatures of processing fluids; machinery errors and especially human mistakes.

Of course, numerous other problems lay in wait while taking a photograph—light leaks in the camera body; double exposures; light flares; having a finger over the lens; over-and under-exposures and the list can go on and on.
So enjoy these photographic screw ups and let me know which of these is your favorite!

9 comments:

Lynelle said...

What I love about these images is that they were kept and possibly cherished, even though flawed. In a world where we take a hundred pictures and flippantly delete 99, it's lovely to think about the idea of the photograph as a rare and thrilling artifact.

Jan said...

So difficult to choose one.
Possibly number 4 - the completely obliterated person must have been a bit put out !

Maureen said...

There are different reasons to like a number of them, the happy guy being tickled by ectoplasm and the couple on the sofa being split are interesting, but I think the more profound is the last one with the child in front of the doctor bag with all the spots.

Anonymous said...

I want to write a ghost story about the light coming between the couple on the couch (7th from the top).

Doesn't it make you wonder if this was just an accident in the processing or something more sinister?

;-)
gigi

Larry the Artist said...

It's between Number 2 (the alien force grabbing the button on the suitcoat) and the army men (because it looks like a collage).

John Foster said...

Hey Gigi! I think you SHOULD write a story about one of these! And to the others, I appreciate your comments and choices.

Mark Sullo said...

What's wonderful and amazing about these for me, is that several of them would be great even without the mistake element. With that in mind I'd vote for the seventh (couch sitters) and the first as a very close runner up(where the hell IS that thing???).

Anonymous said...

these are beautiful. Like gigi, I instantly thought of something more than processing errors, deeper, perhaps not sinister, but definitely other world.

Astral Mapmakers Society said...

Great Site, and I hope to look forward to updates, love this! ;D

You might also like:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...