ABOUT

Vernacular Photography sells fine vintage found photos — snapshots, for the most part, taken by amateur photographers from roughly 1900 through the 1970s. I would expect that for most visitors to this site no further explanation of the genre is needed, but if one is desired, a good place to start is with the excellent 2007 book The Art of the American Snapshot.

We also sell snapshots on Ebay, primarily under the username “loophighway,” so please go there to check our feedback if by chance you are at all concerned about the prospect of ordering from a website such as this. Suffice to say that we have an excellent track record of service, shipping quickly and safely and offering a return policy under which any photo can be returned if it does not meet your standards (though after selling thousands of photos on Ebay this has yet to happen). In addition, all purchases are of course protected by the standard policies of Paypal, which is the preferred method of payment. (Checks and money orders are also accepted; simply email and we will put a photo on hold until payment has been received.)

The photos for sale on this site are some of the better ones we have acquired, and most have never been on Ebay. This is a more select — and much smaller –group of images, but we will add photos regularly, so please check back.

ORDERING

Simply click on the Payapl “Add to Cart” button below a photo and either follow the prompts to pay, or add more and then complete checkout. Again, if you would like to use a different payment method, please contact us. As far as shipping goes, it’s free. If you have any questions, just email.

A WORD ABOUT GRADING

Most vintage photographs of course exhibit some wear. We always describe any significant flaws, but general light wear is sometimes more difficult to convey. Most of these photos are in very good condition for their age with what one might call trace flaws — especially when viewed in reflected light, which tends to be more revealing of imperfections. In general, unless an image is so spectacular that it is worth dealing with even though it is in poor or fair shape, all our photos are at least “Good,” which in our scale means it has some wear, such as a corner bend or bends or very light creasing, a dimple or two, or perhaps residue on the rear that imparts some minor waviness to the paper. “VG” (Very Good) is the next step up, and would be used for a photo that has very little of the aforementioned, but still has something that keeps it from being graded higher. “EX” (Excellent) is the highest grade most photos will warrant, and indicates an example with only the very slightest flaws — it will have good corners, no residue on the back, etc., but perhaps something very minor that can be seen in reflected light that marks it as having had some sort of journey through the ages. Finally, there are those rare photos one comes across that have been so well-preserved that they look as if they came from the lab yesterday. Those we rate “Nr-Mt” for Near-Mint. The photos can all been enlarged by clicking on the image, so please examine the scans, which are always as representative of the photos as we can reasonably make them. And please note the dimensions, as sometimes vintage snapshots can be on the smaller side.