After almost five years in Germany, I've amassed an impressive body of work. I love many of the photos I have taken here, and some of them are even selling rather well. Yet, I have very few images to show when people ask me to show photos of Germany as most people are not into architectural abstracts.
Robert E. Jackson isn't exactly a household name, but his massive collection of one-of-a-kind snapshots has earned him a great deal of recognition in the right circles. Back in 2007, he was given an entire show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. And some of his collection is currently on display at the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York City.
He's a prolific collector with over 11,000 prints to his name, and so NPR's Claire O'Neill asked him to call in and talk with her about the snapshot, what it was, what it is, and whether or not it's in the process of fading away forever.
"Say cheese." It's an expression that has become so much a part of our culture that everyone understands it to simply mean, "Smile," rather than a command to actually utter the word "cheese." For many people, smiling and posing for casual snapshots go hand-in-hand, but why do people smile for pictures, and when did this practice begin? After all, if you browse portrait photos created in the early days of photography -- or even half a century ago -- you'll find the subjects wearing stoic, humorless expressions on their faces.
If you’ve got boxes of old prints and family photos you’d like to salvage from those awful sticky photo …