Pop Photographica™in Everyday Life,
Photographs "Off the Wall"
By Daile Kaplan

In the beginning there was the photograph and it was flat. Portraiture, which provoked apprehension as well as enchantment, was the genre of choice. Realistic images of one’s own visage, or those of dear friends and cherished family members, were seen for the first time. Everyone marveled at photography’s startling verisimilitude. Enterprising photographers sought attractive applications for this new medium, and the portrait morphed into the 3-dimensional object festooned with an image. Flattering studies were introduced on to perfume bottles, jewelry, writing instruments, walking sticks, and other luxury goods associated with la haute bourgeoisie. Before long photographs appeared on pillowcases, mirrors, clothing, furniture, and countless other quotidian items.

Today mass- or up-market artifacts incorporating pictures are ubiquitous. Frequently dismissed as kitsch, they have eluded historians and museum curators for more than 150 years. Photo novelties were consigned to the margins of fine art discourse, and occasionally dusted off as Folk or Outsider Art. Devotees of our material culture have also recently adopted photographic artifacts, but overlooked their rich visual language and artistic references.

"Pop photographica"--a term I coined to define this tsunami of tschotschkes–is a hybrid form that defies simple categorization. Fathered by the prodigious photographer-cum-businessman, mothered by individual need for adornment or comfort, and godfathered by popular culture, which continually integrated photography into the social landscape, it encompasses all of the photographic techniques yet transcends photography as we know it. Queen Victoria’s sewing purse highlighted with images of her self and Prince Albert. A family quilt with blue-toned photographs. Fashion apparel and accessories adorned with celebrity icons.

Photography’s kissing cousin, pop photographica™ demonstrates how the familiar stuff of everyday life that wouldn’t ordinarily be appreciated as art often is. Pop Photographica™ draws on multiple cultural influences including the applied arts, advertising, kitsch, design, and folk art. In addition, it is inextricably linked with vernacular imagery. A hybrid art form that relies on the shifting boundaries between the popular and high arts position pop photographica as a dynamic new genre..

Who created pop photographica? Studio Photographers. Itinerant photographers. Artists. Housewives. Artisans. Carpenters. Entrepreneurs. Jewelers. Craftswomen. Photo-hobbyists. Most of these historical makers are anonymous. Today, contemporary artists and fashion designers are incorporating photographs into their works.

How may we understand the underpinnings, the story of pop photographica? By initiating a dialogue which, hopefully, this site will promote. By sharing stories of photographic family items. By reading photographers’ accounts of their business activities. By tracing the development of the applied arts. By identifying the mores, fashions, and trends of an historical era or social milieu. By looking at period photographs to see whether pop photographica makes an appearance, and how. By examining contemporary cultural practices.

Omnipresent in our daily lives Pop Photographica™ demonstrates the myriad ways in which photographs have been employed on familiar objects, whether they’re custom made, one-of-a-kind, or manufactured. It equally embraces the everyday and the extraordinary, personalizing human experience in unexpected ways.

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